Constantinople call this Nicene form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most Ancient and what was pronounced by the Candidates of Baptism If the form of the old Jerusalem Creed were entirely extant part of which we have in the Liturgy of St. James the matter would then be put out of doubt for that it was more contracted than that form which St. Cyril about the Year 350 explained in his Learned Lectures or Institutions to those who had been Baptized appears by the Fragment preserved The form which Eusebius presented to the Emperour and Council was thus We believe in one God the Father Almighty Creator of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Word of God God of God light of light life of life the only begotten Son the first-born of every Creature begotten of God the Father before all Worlds by whom all things were made who for our Salvation was Incarnate and conversed among men he Suffered and rose the third day and ascended to the Father and he shall come again with glory to Judge both the quick and the dead We believe also in the Holy Ghost I do not pretend to say that this was the old form used from the beginning for it is plain from the very contexture and from the omission of some Clauses by the Nicene Fathers that they lookt upon this as interpolated It being certain and undoubted that there was an old Apostolical form or form used from the very beginnings of Christianity to be profest at Baptism the Bishops of the chief Sees thought themselves at liberty to explain or add as they judged most proper for the time wherein they lived which is the true Reason as I must intimate again why the forms are so various And especially when we consider that according to the form of Baptism the chief design of this Profession of Faith made at the receiving it was an explicite acknowledgment of each of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity And accordingly here the Nicene Creed stops for that which is commonly called so ought upon the account of the several additions to be called the Constantinopolitan Creed Though that in some other old Creeds were added the Articles of the Resurrection of the Flesh and of everlasting Life appears from the Confession of the Bishops met at Antioch not long after under Constantius And that of one Church also in others as St. Jerome positively asserts And that of Remission of Sins and everlasting Life is clear from St. Cyprian Agreeably to this Vossius supposeth the old Eastern Creed to be this or after this manner I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son of God who for us men and for our Salvation came down from Heaven and was Incarnate and was made man He suffered and rose the third day from the dead and ascended into the Heavens and he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead And I believe in the Holy Ghost If this should be allowed him which has no other Authority but his own conjecture yet we may hence conclude that both the Eastern and the Western Churches may well and justly pretend to derive their forms from the Apostles Which must be understood as to the ground of each Creed and in the general For that the Apostles did Pen every word or every Article of the Creed which now bears their Name was never pretended or asserted by any one Nay the contrary is now and was Anciently acknowledged and the variety of forms in the chief Apostolical Sees used according to the exigence of the times is a convincing Proof But this doth not hinder but rather suppose that there was a short Form proposed by the Apostles as the Ancient Writers have asserted And that the old Oriental Creed and the old Roman are almost in expression but wholly in effect the same and consequently Apostolical FINIS a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in that Excellent Speech of the Emperour Constantine to the Bishops upon the breaking up of the Council of Nice just before their departure to their respective Dioceses In Eusebius in his Life Lib. 3. Cap. 21. b 1 Cor. 12. 13. a St. John 14. 26. Ch. 16. 13. 1 St. John 1. 1. b Nobis nihil ex nostro arbitrio inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit Apostolos Domini habemus auctores qui nec ipsi quicquam ex suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt sed acceptam à Christo Disciplinam fideliter nationibus adsignaverunt Tertullianus de Praescripti haeret Cap. 6. Expeditè praescribimus adulteris nostris illam esse regulam veritatis quae veniat à Christo transmissa per comites ipsius quibus aliquanto posteriores diversi isti Commentatores probabuntur Apologet. Cap. 47. a Hanc tibi fossam determinavit ipse Christus qui te non vult aliud credere quam quod instituit ideóque nec quaerere Tertul. de Praescript Cap. 10. o V. Tertullianum de Praescript haeret Cap. 21. c See Vincentius Lirinensis excellently treating of this Argument in the 32 Chapter of his Commonitorium a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodotus Ancyranus in expositione symboli Nicaem Romae 8. 1669 Speaking of the Union of the two Natures in the single Person of Christ. pag. 26. o But of this see the Appendix o Sciendum sanè est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae symbolo non habetur additum descendit ad inferna Sed neque in Orient is Ecclestis habetur hic sermo Vis tamen verbi eadem videtur esse in eo quod sepultus dicitur Rufinus oo Rufinus Presbyter Ecclesiae Aquileiensis in expositione symboli Apostolici Priusquam incipiam de ipsis sermonum virtutibus disputare illud non importunè commonendum Puto quod in diversis Ecclesiis aliqua in his verbis inveniuntur adjecta In Ecclesiâ tamen Urbis Romae hoc non deprehenditur factum Quod ego propterea esse arbitror quod neque heresis ulla illic sumpsit exordium Et mos inibi servatur antiquus eos qui gratiam baptismi suscepturi sunt publicè id est fidelium populo audiente symbolum reddere Et utique adjectionem hujus saltem sermonis eorum qui praecesserunt in fide non admittit auditus In ceteris autem locis quantum intelligi datur propter nonnullos haereticos addit a quaedam videntur per quae novellae doctrinae sensus crederetur excludi p V. Eusebium de vitâ Constantini Lib. 3. Cap. 4. q Epiphanius in Anchorato versus finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a V. Theodotum Ancyranum in exposit symb Nic. pag. 88. Et professionem fidei à Romano Pontifice haberi solitam in libre diurno Pontif. Roman pag. 35. Secundum Constantinopolitanum adaequè Sanctum certum quoque quinquaginta Patrum Concilium sub Imperialis
foolish and idle Presumption to think otherwise And particularly that the Mysteries of the Christian Religion lye out of our reach and ken appears by this unhappy Proof that upon their first publication at that time when all the Treasuries and hidden recesses of Nature were thrown open and laid common when nothing seemed to escape the curiosity of bold and industrious Enquirers and when the Studies of Philosophy seemed to exalt Reason to the highest pitch and degree of Perfection that it was capable of they stood amazed at the strangeness of this New Doctrine not agreeing with their Principles and no way to be accommodated to any of those numerous Hypotheses which they had taken up and from this amazement they soon advanced to a downright and violent Opposition of it andused the utmost Forces of their Wit and of their Eloquence and of their Learning to deride and decry and suppress the further growth and spreading of it And the Jews too though they daily turned over the leaves of the Prophets which pointed out in part those Glorious Discoveries of the Secrets of God which were to be made in the times of the Messias were so besotted and wrought upon by the suggestions of a gross Fancy and an ill-grounded Prejudice that neither the exact and punctual fulfilling of those Prophesies even in their minutest Circumstances nor continued Miracles wrought before their Eyes the highest and most rational grounds of Credibility could prevail upon them to admit a Doctrine which was so much above their mean apprehension of things and seemed to thwart and cross and contradict those Foolish Idea's and Childish Fancies wherewith they had so long pleased themselves The World was now to be Instructed with a better and more Heavenly Doctrine and all just motives of perswasion were used and proposed to satisfie their Reason and to work them up to a full belief of it enough to lay the whole blame of their Infidelity upon themselves The Will of God was Revealed by Christ in plain and easie Propositions without the least Ambiguity And the Authority wherewith they were proposed rendred them Infallible for how could they well doubt of or deny the truth of a Doctrine which they saw attested and confirmed by Omnipotence The ground then of our Faith is the Revelation of God by Christ. My Doctrine is not mine says our Blessed Saviour but his that sent me St. John 7. 16. And He that sent me is true and I speak to the World those things which I have heard of him St. John 8. 26. And as my Father hath taught me I speak these things v. 28. All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Chap. 15. v. 15. And I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them Chap. 17. v. 8. He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith He it is who Commissioned his Apostles to Publish the Doctrine which he first taught from him and in his Name to go about the World and make Proselytes to his Religion and Proclaim the Saving Virtues and Merits of his Cross and the Glories of his Resurrection And what one of the number says concerning the Institution and Celebration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord 1 Cor. 11. 23. I have received of the Lord that which I have delivered to you is to be said of the whole complexion and comprehension of the Articles of Faith This was their Profession wheresoever they went there was no mixture of their own Fancy and Invention in the case they were Infallibly secured from the least Error in their Doctrine by the Guidance of Gods Spirit That which was from the beginning which they had heard which they had seen with their Eyes and which they had looked upon and their hands had handled concerning the World of Life they declared and nothing else That is they spake nothing concerning Christ either his Person or his Doctrine but what they were Infallibly assured of what they had heard Christ say and declare to be his Will and what they had seen him do The Foundation of Faith being thus established I shall hence deduce these following Conclusions 1. That no Doctrine can or ought to be proposed as an Article of Faith but what Christ has revealed and what the Apostles from him have declared in their Preaching and in their Writings 2. That since the times of the Apostles and the Sealing up the Canon of Scripture no new Doctrine can or ought to be added as Essential to the Christian Faith 3. That it is not in the Power of the Church in general much less of any particular Church of what denomination soever to lay down any Doctrine as necessary to be believed in order to Salvation but what is expresly Revealed or clearly deduced out of the Writings of the New Testament and was acknowledged in the first Ages of Christianity 1. That no Doctrine can or ought to be proposed as an Article of Faith but what Christ has Revealed and what the Apostles from him have declared in their Preaching and in their Writings All Articles of Faith relying upon the Revelation of God by Christ as we cannot deny such a Testimony which God has given of his Son without making him a Lyar as St. John speaks first Epist. 5th Chap. 10th ver So nothing more can be required of us than to believe that and that only as necessary and with a Divine Faith which he has been pleased to Reveal Because what he has thought fit to Communicate of the Mind and Will of God in Order to the constituting a Church upon Earth and bringing us to Heaven must needs be judged sufficient as it is indeed most sufficient to effect this double end Now because Christ did not leave behind him a System or Body of Articles in Writing most of which refer to himself that is as well to that wonderful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dispensation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it and so comprehending his Conception and Birth and the several Acts of his Life and his last Sufferings as that He was Conceived by the Holy Ghost Born of a pure and spotless Virgin did such and such stupendious Miracles Suffered by way of Atonement and Expiation for the Sins of the whole World rose again from the Dead and ascended Bodily into Heaven and the like as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transcendent Excellencies of the Divine Nature as that He is the only Begotten Son of God Begotten of the Father before all Worlds and God of the same Substance with the Father and the like which were to be the Fundamentals of his Religion but left the business of propagating a Church which he had Founded by his Blood to his Apostles to them we are to have recourse as to the Infallible Relators of his Mind and Will Here then is to be the Tryal of
or form of words in their times who lived toward the end of the second Century That this form was the same in the main with what we call the Apostles Creed is next to be made out which I shall do by laying down the words and Articles of that Form I begin with Irenaeus l. 1. c. 2. Ecclesia per universum orbem usque ad fines terrae seminata ab Apostolis à Discipulis eorum accepit eam fidem quae est in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem qui fecit Coelum terram mare omnia quae in eis sunt in unum Jesum Christum filium Dei incarnatum pro nostrâ salute in Spiritum Sanctum qui per Prophetas praedicavit dispositiones Dei adventum eam quae est ex Virgine generationem passionem resurrectionem à mortuis in carne in Coelos ascensionem dilecti Jesu Christi Domini nostri de Coelis in gloriâ Patris adventum ejus ad recapitulanda universa resuscitandam omnem carnem humani generis Here is an explicite acknowledgment of the Doctrine of the Christian Faith received all the World over by all Orthodox Christians wherein they profess to believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things which are therein And in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnate that he was born of a Virgin suffered rose from the dead ascended into Heaven and that he shall come again in the glory of the Father and that he shall raise the dead and in the Holy Ghost It is not here undertaken to be proved that it is the same in every expression of it for that is variable or in all its clauses several of which were added in after times for wise and just reasons and ends mentioned before by Rufinus But it is evident that the beginning was ever the same the Article of one God Almighty maker of the World or of all things or of Heaven and Earth For they were not confined to a Phrase and the explication was various And then immediately follows the Article concerning our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ the Son of God our Lord this Solemn Profession being so common and universal that the Fathers who refer to it in all probability thought it unnecessary oftentimes to repeat any more than the beginning the rest being easily understood So l. 1. c. 19. Cùm teneamus nos autem regulam veritatis id est quia sit unus Deus omnipotens qui omnia condidit per verbum suum aptavit fecit ex eo quod non erat ad hoc ut sint omnia lib. 2. cap. 43. Nunquam transferentes regulam neque errantes ab artifice neque abjicientes fidem quae est in unum Deum qui fecit omnia lib. 4. cap. 45. Hi eam quae est in unum Deum qui omnia fecit fidem nostram custodiunt eam quae est in Filium Dei dilectionem adaugent qui tantas dispositiones propter nos fecit And to the same effect cap. 62. Omnia er constant in unum Deum Omnipotentem ex quo omnia fides integra in Filium Dei Christum Jesum Dominum nostrum He supposes all along that this Confession of Faith and particular form agreeable to what we find in the Creed was handed down in the way of Tradition from the Apostles Thus lib. 3. cap. 3. speaking of St. Clement he says that in his Epistle to the Corinthians he did annuntiare quam in recenti ab Apostolis receperant traditionem annuntiantem Unum Deum Omnipotentem factorem Coeli terrae But more expresly and fully in the 4th Cap. Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat ordinem sequi traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias Cur ordination assentiunt multae gentes Barbarorum quorum fortassè aliqui qui in Christum credunt sine chartâ atramento Scriptam habentes per Spiritum in cordibus suis salutem veterem traditionem diligenter custodientes in unum Deum credentes fabricatorem Coeli terrae omnium quae in iis 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 gloriâ venturus salvator eorum qui salvantur judex eorum qui judicantur mittens in ignem aeternum transfiguratores veritatis contemptores Patris sui adventûs sui To this form or rule Tertullian plainly alludes in his Book against Praxeas making it as Ancient as the first Preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles cap. 2. Nos verò semper nunc magis ut instructiones per Paracletum deductorem Scil. omnis veritatis unicum quidem Deum Credimus sub hûc tamen dispensatione quam Oeconomiam credimus ut unici Dei sit filius sermo ipsius qui ex ipso processerit per quem omnia facta sunt sine quo factum est nihil Hunc missum à Patre in Virginem ex eâ natum hominem Deum filium hominis filium Dei cognominatum Jesum Christum hunc passum hunc mortuum sepultum secundum Scripturas resuscitatum à Patre in Caelos resumptum sedere ad dextram Patris venturum judicare vivos mortuos qui exinde miserit secundum promissionem suam à Patre Spiritum Sanctum Paracletum Sanctificatorem fidei eorum qui credunt in Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum Hanc regulam ab initio Evangelii decucurrisse etiam ante priores quosque haereticos nedum ante Praxean hesternum probabit tam ipsa Posteritas omnium haereticorum quam ipsa novellitas Praxeae hesterni But more contractedly in his Book de velandis Virginibus thus Regula quidem sidei una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis credendi Scil. in Unicum Deum Omnipotentem mundi conditorem Filium eius Jesum Christum natum ex Virgine Mariâ crucisixum sub Pontio Pilato tertio die resuscitatum à mortuis receptum in Caelis sedentem nunc ad dextram Patris venturum judicare vivos mortuos per carnis etiam resurrectionem Novatianus a Roman Presbyter who lived about the Year 240 thus begins his Book de Trinitate Regula exigit veritatis ut primò omnium credamus in Deum Patrem dominum omnipotentem id est verum omnium perfectissimum conditorem Cap. 9. Eadem regula veritatis docet nos credere post Patrem etiam in Filium Dei Christum Jesum dominum Deum nostrum Dei filium hujus Dei qui unus solus est conditor scilicet rerum omnium ut jam superius expressum est Cap. 29. Sed