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
Church from which all other Churches sprang as so many Daughters from the Mother Church and therfore were to honour her acordingly Isa 2. 3. Now we know that in after Ages the Bishop of Rome was taxed for challenging to himselfe the Title of Episcopus Episcoporum as Stephen by S. Cyprian Conc. Carthag apud Cyp. and universall Bishop which Boniface the third assumed by the grant of the Emperour Phocas whereas here these Titles are not challenged by Clemens Bishop of Rome but voluntarily given to an other it is therefore wholy improbable that this Epistle was fained by some latter writer as many of the decretall Epistles have bene since under the name of Clemens to magnify the Bishop of Romes Authority since nemo gratis mendax Secondly Ruffinus the forenamed Presbyter of Aquileia translated it out of Greeke into Latine as the genuine Epistle of Clemens it appeares therefore that it was written at first in Greeke as was also that famous Epistle of his to the Corinthians so not by some latter Romane Author and at least before the time of Ruffinus who flourished toward the latter end of the fourth Century Thirdly the Epistle might probably be thus inscribed Fratri Domini To the Lords Brother then some latter Sciolus finding James peculiarly honoured with this Title by S. Paul Gal. 2 v. 9. And finding that he about that Time was Bishop of Ierusalem too rashly added the name Iacobo whenas Clemens might well write it Simoni Cleophae the Brother of Iames and his successour in that See his Brother as appeares by comparing Mat. 13. 55. Mar. 15. 40. Ioh. 19 25. And his successour in the Bishoprick as is witnessed by Eusebius and others Fourthly But if the name Iacobo must needes stand we may possibly suppose that Clemens so farr off might not heare of the death of Iames. as the Jews at Rome heard no evill report of S Paul Act. 28. 21. from their countrymen in the East though for many years they had persecuted him both with tongue and hand and so write to him as alive or if this seem not probable we have a very faire testimony out of the Chronicle called Epitome Temporum that this Iames survived Nero and consequently survived Peter this Chronicle was set forth by Ios Scaliger and reacheth downe from Adam to the 20th yeere of Heraclius the Emperour the words are these 1. Olymp CCXII. The Emp. Galba Nero's Successour and Titus Ruffinus being Consuls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The the same yeare S. James the Apostle and Patriarch of Jerusalem whom S. Peter placed in his Throne or See as he was going up to Rome died and Simeon who is also caled Simon assumed the dignity of the Bishoprick of Jerusalem and became Patriarch Which well agrees with that of Eusebius in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit That Simon Cleophae succeeded James after the Destruction of Jerusalem his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The foresaid Epitome is thus praised by that Great Critick Scaliger Opus utilissimum quanquam Scriptoris Idiotae Onuphrius Panumus whom Scaliger calls the Father of History called it by the name of Fasti Siculi because it was found first in Sicily when learning revived in these Westrne Parts But the Learned Vossius lib. 2. de Hist Gr. cap. 23. Calls it by a third name Chronicum Alexandrinum from Matt. Raderus who set it out with his Translation Eò quod in frontispicio illud commendet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was probably the 50th Patriarch of that See An Do. IICXL Opus est saith the same Vossius Cronologis perutile vel ob multa ex Africano atque Eusebio excerpta quae frustra alibi quaeras See Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 23. 2. Irenaeus the Apostes Scholer but once removed as who was Scholer to Polycarpus the Scholer of St John makes mention of the Apostles Creed and setts it downe lib. 1. adu haer cap. 2. I shall cite his words in the Originall Greek for in that tongue he wrote as having bin bred in the Asian Church though afterwards translated to the Bishoprick of Lions in France according as Epiphanius records them lib. 1. haer 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is The Church although dispersed throughout the whole world from one end of the Earth unto the other hath received from the Apostles and their Disciples The Beleefe in One God the Father Almighty who made Heaven and Earth and the Seas and Whatsoever is in Them and in one Jesus Christ the Sonne of God who was made flesh for our Salvation and in the holy Ghost who published by the Prophets the offices and double comming of the Beloved Jesus Christ our Lord his Birth of a Virgin his Passion his Resurrection from the Dead and his bodily assumption into Heaven and his comming from Heaven in the Glory of his Father to recollect all things and to raise againe every body of all mankind to the end that every knee of Things in Heaven and things one earth and things under the earth may bow to Jesus Christ our Lord and God Saviour King every tongue may confesse unto him and that he may doe righteous judgment unto All by sending the wicked Spirits the Transgressing and Apostate Angells with the ungodly unjust lawlesse and blasphemous men into everlasting Fire and freely bestowing that life immortality eternall Glory which he had purchased one those who are Just Holy who have kept his commandments and abode in his love either from the begining or since their Repentance and Conversion The same Father lib. 3. cap. 4. sets downe the Creed more summarily and contractedly with this preface to the forme Quid si neque Apostoli quidem scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat ordinem sequi Traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias Cui ordinationi assentiunt multae gentes Barbarorum eorum qui in Christum credunt sine charactere vel atramento scriptam habentes per spiritum in cordibus suis Salutem veterem Traditionem diligenter custodientes In vnum Deum credentes Fabricatorem Caeli terrae omnium quae in eis sunt per Jesum Christum Dei Filium qui propter eminentissimam erga figmentum suum Dilectionem eam quae esset ex Virgine Generationem sustinuit ipse per se Hominem adunans Deo Passus sub Pontio Pilato Resurgens in claritate receptus in Gloria venturus Salvator eorum qui saluantur Judex eorum qui judicantur mittens in ignem aeternum Transfiguratores veritatis contemptores Patris sui Adventus ejus what if the Apostles saith he had not left us the Scriptures ought we not to follow the Rule and series of Tradition which the Apostles delivered unto them to whom they committed the charge of the Churches which Rule is held and assented to by many of those barbarous Nations
question'd or denied by the Hereticks of those times have taken nothing from the Apostles Creed as in it selfe superfluous but have in a larger Declaration insisted on some Articles which were controverted by the said Hereticks omitting others about which there was no doubt or question raised and therefore not necessary in that case to be repeated The truth of this will more clearely appeare by the Paraphrases of some Fathers on the Apostles Creed who frequently omit some Articles or parcells of Articles in their explications even in that Age when 't is confest on all Hands that the Creed which is now called the Apostles was fully and compleatly extant And if they omitted some considerable Parts of the Creed when they undertook professedly to explain it because either so plain that they needed no explication or because handled before in some other Homily or Paraphrase we may suppose with greater Reason that the Councels and Fathers omitted some one or few Articles in the composing of their new Symboles which were framed upon some especiall occasion directed against a particular Heresy though the Apostles Creed were then fully extant For proofe of this consult the following Fathers 1. S. Chrysostome who flourisht about the yeare 400. in his first Hom. on the Creed omits these particles maker of Heaven Earth suffered died descended into Hell ascended into Heaven and ends the Text of his Creed thus I believe in the Holy Ghost 2. Petrus surnamed Chrysologus who flourisht about the year 440. in his 57 Hom. on the Creed omits Almighty maker of Heaven Earth suffered under Pontius Pilate died descended into Hell In his 58 Hom. he omits suffered and died rose from the dead descended into hell Catholick which Epithete is also omitted in the other following Homilies though exprest in the 57. After siting at the right hand of the Father he leaves out Almighty as also in the 57 Homily In Hom. 59. he omits maker of Heaven and Earth In Hom. 61. he leaves out the last Article life everlasting as included in the precedent of the Resurrection for Death being conquered by our Rising againe it must needs be a Resurrection unto a life immortall 3. Eusebius Gallicanus usually called Emesenus a Father of uncertain Age but placed by Bellarmine in the yeare 430. in his first Homily on the Creed omits maker of Heaven and Earth as implied in Omnipotent all the Articles between Christs Birth and Ascension although he mention them in his explication He omits also the Article of the Holy Ghost The remission of sins by Baptisme as inclosed in the beliefe of the Holy Catholique Church and the two last Articles viz. of the Resurrection and life Everlasting In his second Homily he omits Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth only Son in the second Article Suffered under Pontius Pilate died 4. Venantius Fortunatus who flourished about the yeare 570. in his Exposition of the Apostles Creed omits Maker of Heaven and Earth our Lord in the second Article rose againe from the Dead sitteth on the right hand of the Father though it be in the explication I believe the Holy Catholique Church the Communion of Saints and Life everlasting which is included as by Chrysologus in the Article of the Resurrection Object 12. If the Creed were framed by the Apostles and by them delivered to all Churches of the World it could never have come into the Fathers mindes to have composed so many Symboles and Confessions which for Perfection must needs give place to that of the Apostles no such therefore was then extant which he must needs grant who knowes that this simple formula was required of those that came to Baptisme whether they believed in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Math. 28. 19. Answ The Fathers made no new Creeds or Confessions of Faith as hath been already shewen but only explained the old the occasion of which explicatory Creeds is well rendred by the Learned Vossius Non licuit per haereticos in ea simplicitate permanere Haeresibus igitur obortis quarum Architecti vel Patroni sese pro Christianis venditarent ac misere seducerent imperitos coacti sunt addere alia quibus Ecclesiae Doctrina ab Haereticâ item Ecclesiae filii ab haereticis eorum Sectatoribus secernerentur That is The Hereticks would not suffer the Church to continue in the Primitive simplicity of the Faith for Heresies arising whose Authors and abettors carried themselves for Christians and under that name miserably seduced the ignorant the Fathers were compelled to adde other Creeds whereby the Doctrine of the Church might be distinguished from Heresy and the Children of the Church from Hereticks and their followers Thus he De trib Symb. Dissert 1. num 29. Sceondly as to that Forme of Beliefe in the Trinity which the Apostles are said by direction from their Master to have required of those who came to Baptisme Mat. 28. 19. There is no such matter there set downe only they are charged there to Baptize in the Name of the Trinity not in the name of any strange God or of any one Person of the sacred Trinity but of all Three together Yet I willingly grant that faith in the Holy Trinity was required of the Persons which came to Baptisme but not by vertue of that command which was given to the Baptizers not to the Persons who came to be Baptized but this Faith was not the only thing required of them for we read other points numbred amongst the principles or beginings of Christian Doctrine which the Catechumeni were taught as Repentance from dead workes resurrection of the Dead and Eternall Judgment Heb. 6. 1 2. Ob. 13th If the Creed had been Composed by the Apostles with the same sentences words order which we now have and had been so delivered to the Catholick Church there had not been divers Creeds about the yeere 400 according to diverse Churches diverse in the manner of expression and diverse in the number of sentences which diversity will appeare to him that shall compare severall Creeds together especially the Nicene which hath not a few sentences added others alterd with which additions and alterations it was afterwards received and used in the Eastern Churches the Apostles Creed being in a maner excluded Answ First The diversity of severall Creeds in some few words or in the manner of expression is a Circumstance not materiall so the same sense be kept inviolate and all the Heads or Articles of the Faith preserved entire Secondly As to the number of Sentences more in some Creeds and fewer in others we have before assigned some Reasons why one or more articles have beene omitted in some Creeds and so the number made fewer but for the adding of any new Sentences unto the Apostles Creed I constantly deny that the Primitive Church ever did it but on the other side constantly disclaimed it her office being this to preserve the old Faith which was once delivered to
the Saints not to coine a New Thirdly The Church upon occasion hath added some Explicatory Particles to severall Heads of the Creed especially in the two first Synods of Nice and Constantinople partly to vindicate the Faith from the corrupt Glosses of Hereticks partly the more fully to instruct her Children in the mysteries of Christianity But all these exegeticall Additions referre to some Article or Limbe of this Body of Faith like Physick or nourishiment to the part but make not any new Article thereby to render the Body monstrous The Fathers in those two Synods did neither on the one side dislocate or deprave any limbe of the Creed nor on the other side supplyed any defective member they only gaue a new growth or Augmentation as Burnishing to some Articles or restored that naturall vigour and vitall juce unto some parts which the Hereticks had deprived them off The Nicene Creed that is the Apostles by this meanes become vegete and growen was afterwards used in the Greeke Church yet not presently either that alone or Principally but only once in the year afterward indeed in the time of Timotheus Patriarch of Constantinople which was about six-score yeers after its first composure it was ordained to be used every Sunday But before this we may well presume that the Apostles Creed was used in their Litturgies without these explications except it can be shewen that for foure hundered yeeres and upward they either used no Creed in their Church-service ordinarily which is most improbable or that they used some other Creed which no man yet hath demonstrated To demonstrate this more fully and distinctly it will not be unworthy our labour to compare some Creeds together in which Collation we may contemplate with no small delight and satisfaction The consent of Antiquity in matter of Faith the great care of the Church in preserving that Faith entire and the growing Perfection of our sacred Mother according as shee grew in yeares These Creeds shall be Sixe The Apostles Creed The Easterne Creed or Ierosolymitan set downe by Cyril and compared by Ruffinus The Nicene The Athanasian The Aquileian set downe by Ruffinus and compared with the Easterne and Romane Creeds The Chalcedon Creed And to these we will adde That of the Church of Antioch a good part whereof is set downe by Cassianus Article I. Apost I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth East I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and Invisible Nice hath the same words Aquil. I believe in God the Father Almighty Invisible and Impassible Athan. There is one Person of the Father The Father is God The Father is Almighty Antioch I believe in one only true God maker of all Creatures Visible and Invisible Article II. Apost And in Jesus Christ his only or only-begotten Son our Lord East And in one Lord Jesus Christ the only-begotten Son of God begotten of the Father before all worlds Nic. And in one Lord Iesus Christ the only-begotten Son of God begotten of the Father before all worlds light of light very God of very God begotten not made of one Substance with the Father by whom all Things were made Aquil. And in Jesus Christ his only Unicum Son our Lord. Athan. The right Faith is that we believe confesse that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is God God of the Substance of the Father begotten before the worlds perfect God equall to the Father as touching his Godhead Chalc. We professe the Son our Lord Jesus Christ to be one and the same and all us with one accord pronounce him to be perfect as concerning his Godhead consubstantiall to the Father according to the same Godhead begotten of his Father before the worlds as touching his Godhead Antioch And in our Lord Jesus Christ his only-begotten Sonne the first-borne of every Creature begotten of him before all Worlds and not made very God of very God consubstantiall to the Father by whom the Worlds were framed or Ages set in order and all things made Artic. III. Apost Conceived by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary East Incarnate and made man Nic. Who for us men and for our Salvation came downe from Heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man Aquil. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary Athan. It is necessary to everlasting Salvation to believe rightly in the Incarnation of our Lord Iesus Christ for the right Faith is that we believe and confesse that our Lord Iesus Christ the Sonne of God is God and man Man of the substance of his Mother borne in the World perfect God and perfect Man subsisting of a reasonable soule and humane flesh inferior to the Father touching his Man-hood who although he be God and Man yet he is not two but one Christ one not by conversion of the God-head into flesh but by taking of the Man-hood unto God one altogether not by confusion of substance but by unity of Person For as the reasonable Soule and Flesh is one Man so God and man is one Christ Chalc. We professe the same to be perfect God when he was made man very God and very Man the same subsisting of a Reasonable Soule and Body of the same substance with us according to his Humanity in all things like unto us without sinne the same in these last Daies for us and for our Salvation was borne according to his Manhood of the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God one and the same Iesus Christ the Sonne the Lord the only-begotten made known in two natures without confussion conversion division or seperation thereof the distinction of the natures being not at all taken away by reason of their union but the propriety of each nature being preserved and both meeting in the same Person not severed or devided into two Persons but one and the same only-begotten Son God the Word and Lord Iesus Christ according as the Prophets have from the begining or from above instructed us concerning him yea and Christ himself and as the Creed of the Fathers hath deliverd unto us Antioch Who for our sakes came and was borne of the Virgin Mary Article IV. Apost Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucifyed dead and buried East Crucifyed and Buried Nic. He was Crucifyed also for us under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried Aquil. Crucifyed under Pontius Pilate and buried Athan. Who Suffered for our Salvation Antioch Crucifyed under Ponitus Pilate and Buried Article V. Apost He descended into Hell the third Day he rose againe from the Dead East The third Day he rose againe from the Dead Nic. And the third day he rose againe according to the Scriptures Aquil. The third Day he rose againe from the Dead Athan. Descended into Hell rose againe from the Dead Athan. Descended into Hell rose againe the third Day from the Dead Antioch And the
who believe in Christ having the Doctrine of Salvation written by the Spirit in their Hearts without inky characters and diligently keeping the old Tradition Believing in one God Maker of Heaven and earth and of all Things therein through Jesus Christ the Sonne of God who out of his most eminent love towards his Creature undertooke to be borne of a Virgin thus uniting God and man in his owne Person he suffered under Pontius Pilate and Rising againe was gloriously receiued into Heaven He shall come againe in Glory the Saviour of those who are to be saved and the Judge of those who are to be condemned casting into everlasting fire the corrupters of the Truth the Despisers of his Father and contemners of his comming 3. Turtullian Lib. 1. adu haeret cap. 13. Having en gaged himselfe in the combate with the whole body of Heretiâ—kes produceth against them the Body of the Faith or Apostolicall Creed under the Title of Regula Fidei which he sets downe in these words Regula est fidei ut jam hinc quid credamus profiteamur illa sc quâ creditur unum omninò Deum esse nec alium praeter mundi conditorem qui universa de nihilo produxerit per verbum suum primò omnium emissum Id uerbum Filium ejus appellatum in nomine Dei variè visum patriarchis in Prophetis semper auditum Postremò delatum ex Spiritu Dei Patris virtute in Virginem Mariam carnem factum in utero ejus ex eâ natum Hominem esse Jesum Christum exinde praedicasse novam legem novam promissionem regni Coelorum virtutes fecisse fixum Cruci tertiâ die resurrexisse in Coelos ereptum sedere ad dextram Patris misisse vicariam vim Spiritus Sancti qui credentes agat venturum cum claritate ad sumendos Sanctos in vitae aeternae promissorum caelestium fructum ad prophanos judicandos Igni perpetuo facta utriusque Partis resuscitatione cum carnis resurrectione that is The Rule of Faith whereby we professe what we believe is this that there is one only God the same with the Creator of the world who made all things of nothing by his Word which he first of al sent forth or which first of all came from him This Word called also his Sonne variously or in diverse Formes appeared in the name of God unto the Patriarches was alwayes heard to speake in the Prophets at length conveyed by the Spirit and Power of God the Father into the Virgin Mary was incarnate in her Womb of her born Man and is Jesus the Christ After this he Published a new Law and the new Promise of the Kingdome of Heaven wrought miracles was fastned to the Crosse rose againe the third Day being taken up to Heaven sitteth on the right Hand of the Father sent the Deputy-power of the Holy Ghost to guide those who believe shall come with Glory to assume the Saints unto the enjoyment of everlasting Life and the Heavenly promises and to adjudge the Profane to everlasting Fire having raised up both Parties by the Resurrection of the Body Then he concludes Haec Regula â Christo ut probabitur instituta nullas habet apud nos quaestiones nisi quas Haereses inferunt quae Haereticos faciunt This Rule instituted as will be proved by Christ himselfe admits of no doubts amongst us but such as Heresies produce and produce Heretiks Thus ye see Tertullian writing in generall as he doth in this Booke against all Heretiks puts downe all the Articles thereof which were opposed by any Heretik either before or in his Age For. 1. Christs descentâ— into Hell is included in the Article of the Resurrection or presupposed by it as in some other Creeds but of this more hereafter 2. The Article of the Catholik Church is not so clearly put downe as the rest because not oppugned till Novatus and Donatus arose which was after Tertullians Death 3. Forgivenesse of Sinnes is implyed in the New Promise of the Kingdome of Heaven whereof this is the First and the Foundation to the rest Yet in another booke of his he makes mention of these two latter Articles namely this of the Church and The Forgivenesse of Sinnes as solemnly profest at Baptisme Cum sub tribus testatio fidei sponsio salutis pignerentur necessariò adilcitur Ecclesiae mentio quoniam ubi Tres id est Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus ibi Ecclesia quae trium Corpus est That is When the Confession of our Faith and the Covenant of our Salvation are engaged under the Authority of Three the Church is of necessity mentioned with them for where those Three are the Father Sonne and holy Ghost there is that Church also which is the Body of those Three De Bapt adu Quintillan cap 6. And alittle after giving the reason why Christ himfelfe did not Baptize in Person he shewes how incongruous it had beene for him to have used the received forme of the Church Ne moveat quosdam quòd Ipse non tinguebat in quem tingueret In paenitentiam Quò ergò illi Praecursorem In peccatorum remissionem quam verbo dabat In semetipsum quem humilitate celabat In Spiritum Sanctum qui nondum a Patre descenderat In Ecclesiam quam nondum Apostoli struxerant That is Let it not trouble any that Christ himselfe did not Baptize in whose name or to what end should he have Baptized To Repentance Why then had he a fore-runner For Remission of sinnes which he gave by his Word In his owne Name which in humility he concealed In the Holy Ghosts who as yet was not descended from the Father into the Church which the Apostles had not as yet built cap. 11. A litle after him S Cyp. in his Epistle to Magnus being the 76. speaking of the Novatians who retained the old wounted forme of wordes in the baptismall Intertogatories expresseth one of them thus Credis remissionem peccatorum vitam aeternam per sanctam Ecclesiam Dost thou believe the Remission of sinnes and Life Eternall by the Holy Church in which words it is cleare that these two Articles were part of the confession of Faith used at Baptisme that Life Eternall was a distinct Article from that of the Resurrection and that the Particle In which Tert. prefixeth to the Articles of the Church and Remission of sinnes is not significant but redundant seeing that S. Cyp. here omitts it compare his Epist to Januarius c. viz. the 70. in Pamel Edit But in two other Tracts he sets downe the Creed more briefly First lib. de virg vel cap. 1. Regula fidei una omninò est sola immobilis irreformabilis Credendi sc in unicum Deum Omnipotentem mundi conditorem Filium ejus Jesum Christum natum ex Virgine Maria crucifixum sub Pontio Pilato tertia die resuscitatum a mortuis receptum in Coelis sedentem nunc ad
it might be so cal'd quia ex eorum scriptis summa fide collectum because the Creed was most faithfully gathered out of the Apostles writings he might well indulge to the doubtfull speaking of some Divines in his Time 11. Confessio Saxonica Artic. 1. Affirmamus clare coram Deo universa Ecclesia in Coelo in Terra nos vera Fide amplecti omnia scripta Prophetarum Apostolorum quidem in hac ipsa nativa sententia quae expressa est in Symbolis Apostolico Niceno Athanasiano Et haec ipsa Symbola eorum nativam sententiam sine corruptelis semper constanter amplexi sumus Deo Juvante perpetuo amplectemur Damnamus etiam constantissimè omnes furores qui pugnant cum Symbolis ut sunt Samosateni Serveti Arii Pneumatomachorum portentosae opiniones aliae condemnatae veris Ecclesiae Judiciis That is We openly affirme before God and the universall Church in Heaven and in Earth that with a true faith we imbrace all the writings of the Prophets and Apostles in that very genuine primitive sence which is exprest in the Creeds of the Apostles Nic. and Athanatius and that we have alwayes constantly imbraced and by Gods helpe will alwayes imbrace these Creeds and their true native meaning without falsifying or depravation we also most resolutely condemne all those mad heresies which are repugnant to the Creeds namely those of Samosatenus Servetus Arius and the portentous opinions of the Pneumatomachi and what others condemned by the Just censures of the Church 12 Bohemica Confessio Fides Apostolica in duodecim Articulos digesta tradita in Symbolo per Nicenam Synodum atque adeò alias confirmata exposita est That is The Apostolick Faith being digested into twelve Articles and dilivered in the Creed hath been confirmed and explained by the Nicene and other succeeding Synods 13. Galliae Confes Art 5. Tria illa Symbola nempe Apostolicum Nicenum Athanasianum idcircò approbamus quod sint verbo Dei Scripto consentanea That is Those three Creeds the Apostolick the Nicene and that of Athanasius we therefore approve of because they are agreeable to the written Word of God And Serrarius the Jesuit whom we may well credit in such a matter in his Tract of the Athanasian Creed informes us that the Calvintan Divines in an Assembly of theirs at Lausanna profest that they agreed with the Lutherans concerning those Ancient Creeds and ascribed to them together with the Sciptare a Judiciary Power or Authority which all ought to obey Whence we may gather that they Judged them to proceed from the same Fountaine to wit from Divine or Apostolick Tradition otherwise they would not have conjoyned them with the Scriptures as the Authentick Judges or Rules whereby all Controversies are to be decided 14. The Church of England in her eight Art of the three Creeds agrees with the rest The three Ceeds Nic. Creed Athanasian Creed and that which is commonly cal'd the the Apostles Creed ought thorowly to be received and observed for they may be proved by most certaine warrants of the holy Scripture From these Foure last Testimonies taken out of the Confessions of the Reformed Churches I gather 1. That they concordantly receive these three Antient Creeds and reject whatsoever Heresy or opinion is repugnant to them from whence it will appeare that they have introduced no new Faith or Religion different from the old much lesse opposite unto it 2. They not only receive the Apostles Creed but also acknowledge it for such and by that name contra distinguish it to the Nicene and Athanasian therefore by that Title they are as justly presumed to acknowledge the Apostles for the composers of the one as the Councell of Nice and Athanasius for the Composers of the other Two 3. The Bohemick Confession tels us that the Nicene Councell and the rest that followed did confirme and expound that Faith which had been delivered in the Creed of the Apostles and distributed according to their number into twelve Articles so then the Apostles Creed was the First and not only the First but the Entire and Compleat Summary of the Christian Faith to which succeding Ages added nothing in their severall Formes of Confession or Beleefe but only explained them 4. The Gallican Church and our Mother of England say indeed that they receive the three Creeds because agreeable to the holy Writ but they say not that they receive them only for that Reason so that this expression doth not any way crosse the fore-delivered Tenent of deriving the Creed immediatly from the Mouthes of the Apostles no more than our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles confirming the Doctrine they taught by the testimonies of Moses and the Prophets prejudiced the truth and infallibility of the Spirit by which they spake See Jo. 5. 39 46 47. Act. 26. 22. Chap. 28. 23. Such an Accessory confirmation renders the Truth more cleare and Full and serves not so much to confirme the Doctrine it selfe as the Persons to whom it is delivered 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 TO the Testimony of Scripture Consent of Antiquity and the joynt concordant Suffrages of our latter Protestant Divines I shall subjoyne in the last Place the Verdict of Reason which waits upon the forementioned Authorities giving strength unto some and light unto others Reason 1. The Title which it bears of the Apostles Creed or Symbole hath been generally acknowledged throughout all ages of the Church never questioned till of late cheefly by our moderne Antitrinitarians That Arch heritick Photinus their Fore-father perverted it indeed with the comments Vt fideliter simpliciter dicta ad argumentum sui dogmatis traheret That he might pervert the generall wordes thereof to the countenancing of or complying with his corrupt Tenents as Ruffinus informes us but he never durst deny either its Authority or its Authors Sure this Generall Tradition and unanimous consent of the Church is no weake Argument to evince the true Authors But to this Reason I find three things Objected Ob. 1. Against the Name Symbolum From whence some draw an Argument that it was joyntly composed by the Apostles because the Word is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conferre in unum and so signifies a Collation of many the Metaphor being drawne from Caena collatitia a Supper in common whereto every one of the guests brought his dish of meat or were he laid downe his shot equally with the rest whereas it might be called a Symbole or Collation not because it was gathered a Pluribus sed ex Pluribus not by many men but out of many materialls and this Collation made out of Scripture not by the Apostles themselves but by Apostolick men and their Disciples ab Ecclesiarum Patribus as Eusebius
is involved also in the Article of the Generall Judgment as the Account of our workes was If it be objected here that the Creeds or confessions of Faith which we find in the Councels and Fathers cannot be justly called Expositions of the Apostles Creed seeing that those Formes extant in Irenaeus and Tertullian want many Articles which the Creed now hath much lesse have they all which the Creeds of Nice Calcedon and that of Athanasius have I answer that the Creed as it is set downe in Irenaeus and Tertullian is I confesse somewhat defective for which I have before given some Reasons if we will find it full and entire we must have recourse to some famous ancient Church where it was deposited by the Apostles as that of Jerusalem or Rome now to the Creeds of these Churches the Nicene Chalcedon and that of Athanasius have added nothing in substance as appears by what hath been said but only in explication As for Tertullians Creed though it be more imperfectly set downe in his Booke De virg Vel. and that against the heretick Praxeas yet in his Book De Praescrip adv haer Wherein he oppugneth all Hereticks which had infested the Church untill his time some of which scarce left any one Article of the Creed inviolate he sets it downe more fully only he expreseth not distinctly and at large the Article of the Catholick Church and that of Remission of Sinnes for the former had not been yet oppugned by Novatus or Donatus nor the latter by Pelagius who were not then risen notwithstanding we may find even some hints of these wherein the substance of them lies implicitely hid 1. Those words of his qui credentes agat and those other ad sumendos sanctos wherein he expresseth how the Holy Ghost doth guide all Believers and work in them and that our Saviour will come at the last to take the Saints unto himselfe will serve to make up the ninth Article of the Church and Communion of Saints for the Title of Believers is the usuall stile of Christians and of the Christian Church under the New Testament and one Beliefe or Holy Faith is that which makes the Church a Communion of Saints that is of Persons severed and discriminated from those of other Religions but united among themselves Adde hereunto that which the same Tertullian hath in his Booke against Praxeas viz. That the holy Ghost is the Sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father and in the Sonne and in the holy Ghost that is Of the Catholick Church which is a Communion of Saints or Believers 2. Those words applyed to our Saviour That he Preached the new Law and the New promise of the Kingdome of Heaven imply the tenth Article viz. I believe one Baptisme for the Remission of sinnes as it is more amply set downe in the Nicene Creed for by Baptisme we are initiated into this new Law of Christianity and engage our selves to performe it as the condition of the Gospell-Covenant required on our Part as necessary to Salvation whence by a Metonomie 't is taken somtimes as including the Law or doctrine Preached by the Party Baptizing as in that question of our Saviour to the Pharaisees The Baptisme of Iohn whence was it From Heaven or of men Mat. 21. v. 25. Where our Saviours maine end was to convince them that he was the true Messiah from the Word or Testimony of Iohn the Baptist whereby he gave witnesse to him at that time especially when the Pharasees were sent unto Iohn in a solemne Embassy to enquire whether He were the Christ or no Io. 1. v. 19 20 24 26 27. And as by Baptisme we are initiated into this new Law and thereby entituled unto the Kingdome of Heaven and made Inheritours of it so is Remission of sinnes the new Promise the first and newest of the whole Gospell which reconciling us unto God makes us capable of his other Favours to introduce which and prepare us for it Repentance was first Preached by Iohn the Baptist our Saviour and his Apostles Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand and from which our Saviour tooke his Name thereby signifying the cheife end of his comming Thou shalt call his Name Iesus saith the Angell to Ioseph For he shall save his People from their Sins Mat. 1. 21. 3. As for the last Article viz that of Everlasting Life it is partly implyed in the Article of the Resurrection which as it lookes backward unto Death so it lookes forward on Life Everlasting Death the last enemy being by it subdued partly exprest in the Article of our Saviours Coming to Iudgment the cheife end whereof is setdowne in these words ad sumendos sanctos in Vitae Aeternae fructum to assume his Saints unto the injoyment of Life Everlasting Now this Creed of Tertullian which so nearely symbolizeth with that of the Apostles deserves no meane regard First because he is a very ancient Doctor of the Church as who flourished about the end of the second Century Secondly because his workes are confessedly genuine Thirdly and Chiefly because this Creed of his setting downe was not Framed by him but as he expressely tells us derived from Christ by the mouthes of his Apostles before ever any Heretick appeared in the Church so it was not made because of heresies now risen whereof many arose even in the Apostles Times but before any of them arose not for Remedy but prevention and therefore must needs be very ancient But in the two other places he sets down this Creed or Rule of Faith more imperfectly omitting what made not for his present purpose yet those imperfect Creeds he calls Regulas immobiles irreformabiles inviolable and unchangeable Rules that is in regard of those Heades of Beliefe which he had occasion th … to set downe So that all the Creeds which wee meet with in the Fathers or Councells are to be compared with that which the Church for so many Ages hath acknowledged for the Apostles as so many Copies with the Patterne or Structures with the modell not so well with one another for so they may differ in poynt of quantity and proportion like so many Pictures or Statues made to represent the same body whereof the originall is entire and exactly proportioned but the copies diversely shaped and drawn some too Giant like others too defectively to the middle only or the shoulders If it be farther objected that the Romanists affirme all their new Articles to be only Explications of the old and confesse that Articles cannot increase quoad numerum credibilium sed quoad explicationem yet that we condemne them justly for obtruding those explications as necessary to salvation I answer that the Romanists are justly blamed for obtruding their explications on other Churches as necessary to Salvation because themselves make but a particular Church and yet presume upon a false priviledge of universall primacy and Apostolick Infallibility But as to the Exegericall
command for the observation of these in holy writ nor for many other Church ordinances that might be named Our Church indeed justly blames the Romish for obtruding upon us and other Churches her owne Rituall Traditions as of necessity to Salvation some of which are uncertain others frivolus burthenous superstitious and even contrary to Gods word so did St Augustin long agoe sharply taxe Vrbicus a Romane Presbyter for pressing the Weekly Fast one Saturday as necessary to be observed by all Christian Churches whereas the vsuall Fasting-dayes at that time in all Churches were Wensday Fryday the Saturday fast being a peculiar custome of the Church of Rome But our Church abolisheth not all Traditions as appeares by this of the Creed which she with other Reformed Churches retaines as also by her 34th Article which was on purpose framed touching this subject wherein she intreateth only of Rituall not Doctrinall Traditions telling us that they need not to be alwayes and every where alike but may be diversified according to Times Countries and mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word that what soever Private Person purposey and openly breaketh such ought to be openly rebuked and that every particular or nationall Church hath Authority to ordaine change and abolish Cerimonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by mans authority so that all Things be done to Edifying CAP. VIII Severall Objections which some have alleadged against the fore-assigned Authors of the Creed answered at large Certain Creeds compared together whereby their conformity appears to one another and to that of the Apostles HAving thus confirmed the first of the Five Poynts which I proposed to my selfe in the beginning namely that the Apostles were the Framers or Composers of the Creed which commonly bears their name I should now proceed in order to the Rest but that I conceive it necessary to cleare my passage as I goe on by the removall of such Doubts and Objections which like so many rubbs or stumbling-blocks hinder my farther proceeding and obstruct the way The Truth though sufficiently cleare in it selfe yet will shine forth unto others more gloriously when these mists are scattered though firmely establisht yet her strength will appeare more formidable in the overthrow of her Adversaries For there be some and those of no vulgar ranke who have taken great Paines and still delight themselves in overthrowing those ancient fabricks which our forefathers left us building in their roome some slight painted Toy without either strength or use to please the fancy of the contriver not satisfy the judgement or conduce to the profit of the sober Christian A course if prosecuted which will ere long bring the Doome of the Jewish Temple upon the Christian Church that shee will not have one stone left upon another that shall not be thrown downe Math. 24. 2. As for this present Argument though the Reasons which some have brought against it seeme to the objectors more then probable yet I suppose that upon due triall they will appeare lesse then necessary so that they will prove unsufficient to overthrow the constant Tradition of so many Ages and to sway against the streame of so maine a current the joynt Authority and Testimony of so many Doctors of the Church as well Moderne as Ancient I shall therefore set downe their Reasons fully and faithfully yea somewhat more distinctly than they have done and then subjoyne their Answers in severall Object 1. Were the Creed compiled by the Apostles it is not likely that S. Luke writing the history of their Acts would have omitted so principall a matter Sundry other things of farre lesse consequence he hath carefully recorded as the Apostles Decree concerning Ceremonies and things indifferent but of this so important and weighty a businesse the Decree concerning the Rule of Faith he makes not so much as one word mention which certainly he would never have failed to doe had they made any such At least if S. Luke had omitted it in the Acts yet it cannot be conceived how S. Paul and the rest of the Apostles should not speake a word of it in their Epistles I answer First that this is but a negative argument and concludeth not S. Luke makes no mention thereof in the Acts therefore it was never done To give a like instance or two S. Mathew undertakes to write the History of our Saviours Life and Death with the Precedents of the one and the Consequents of the others and yet there be many weighty Passages omitted by him which we find afterwards related by S. Luke and S. Iohn S. Iohn especially composed his Gospell of those particular Actions and Speeches of our Saviour which were left unmentioned by the three former Evangelists yet he himselfe tells us in the conclusion of his Book that There were many other things which Iesus did the which if they should be written every one he supposed that even the World it selfe could not containe the Bookes that should be written Ioh. 21. 25. But to come closer yet to the Argument S. Luke in that Booke of his which is entituled The Acts of the Apostles mentions very few Acts of the Apostles in generall yet hath large Digressions concerning S. Stephen and S. Philip who were no Apostles but Deacons Then he prosecutes the story of S. Peter and S. Barnabas but more at large that of S. Paul whose companion he was in his Apostolicall Peregrinations and yet how many materiall Passages even touching S. Paul doth he omit some of which we find afterwards occasionally recorded by himselfe in his Epistles especially in those of his to the Churches of Galatia and Corinth As for example his Travailes into Arabia after his conversion his Coming to Ierusalem three yeares after and communicating his Gospell with Peter Iames and Iohn his withstanding Peter at Antioch his rapture into Paradise and unto the third Heaven together with many other particulars things sure of greater consequence than his making of Tents at Corinth or the signe of the Ship wherein he sailed to Italy and yet these are exprest the other excluded If it be replyed that this Argument is produced only as probable and yet will hold good unlesse some probable cause of the omission can be assigned why a poynt of so great importance and so necessary is not mentioned when others of lesse weight are and that the Evangelists omit indeed diverse Things which Christ said and did yet set downe all Things necessary to Salvation which was their main end I rejoyne That whosoever goes about to overthrow so old and received a Tradition may justly be required to bring more than probabilities and conjectures if he expect to be believed that this Probability grounded on S. Lukes omission is sufficiently overthrowne by the positive Testimonies of the Ancients which I haue produced to the Contrary that the Composure of the Creed by the Apostles was a businesse confessedly of great importance but the mentioning of it by S.
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
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