Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	believe_v	church_n	creed_n	1,645	5	10.6358	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60380	The judgment of the fathers concerning the doctrine of the Trinity opposed to Dr. G. Bull's Defence of the Nicene faith : Part I. The doctrine of the Catholick Church, during the first 150 years of Christianity, and the explication of the unity of God (in a Trinity of Divine Persons) by some of the following fathers, considered.	Smalbroke, Thomas.; Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719.	1695 (1695)	Wing S4000; ESTC R21143	74,384	80

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

careful to learn it exactly To this purpose they cite among divers others the Testimony of St. Jerom Epist ad Pam. In the Creed says St. Jerom there which is not written with Ink and Paper but on the fleshly Tables of the Heart 3 It is not true what Vossius adds that the Apostles do not seem to allude or refer to this Creed in any of their Epistles St. Paul says Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the Heart the Form of sound Doctrine which was delivered to you The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exemplar or Form of Doctrine here cannot be better interpreted than of the common Creed It seems also to be meant Rom. 12.6 Let him that prophesieth or preacheth preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Analogy or the Rule of Faith The Scriptures of the New Testament not being yet written the Christian's Rule of Faith could be no other but the Creed which accordingly by the most antient Fathers is expresly called Regula fidei the Rule of Faith 1 Tim. 6.20 O Timothy keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Depositum or the thing committed to thy Trust and turn not aside The Depositum or Trust from which Timothy might not turn aside is generally and very reasonably understood by Interpreters to be the true Doctrine or Faith of the Gospel but if so 't is very probable that the Apostle intended more particularly the Rule of Faith the Creed composed by all the Apostles 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the Form of sound Words which thou didst hear of me Heb. 5.12 Whereas ye ought for the time to have been Teachers ye have need that one teach you again the first Principles of the Doctrines not the Oracles of God Heb. 6.1 Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to Perfection Here the Form of sound Words and the first Principles and again the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ are Expressions so most properly applicable to the Creed that it was too much Boldness or Inadvertence in Vossius to affirm directly that there is no Allusion to the Creed in all the Apostolick Writings one may say they not only allude but even point to it And what does St. Jude so likely mean in these Words Jude 3. Earnestly contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints for there are certain Men crope in denying the only God and our Lord Jesus Christ It is highly credible that by the Faith delivered to the Saints he means the Creed that was given out by the Apostles to all their Churches And does he not refer to the two first Articles of it in these Words for certain Men are crope in who deny the only or one God and the Lord Jesus Christ 2. Vossius his next Argument is yet more weak nay perfectly ridiculous If this Creed saith he had been made and so thought to be by the Apostles the Church would never have presumed to add any thing to it and much less to take ought from it I know not what he means by taking ought from it it doth not appear that any thing has been taken from it it is still the same for all that I know or have ever read as at first But they would not have added by this he means the Creeds of Nice of Constantinople and Chalcedon by making of which Creeds 't is manifest that divers things were added to the first Creed namely the Creed of the Apostles I answer 1 The Fathers in these Councils excused themselves by pretending their Creeds were only Explications of the antient Faith or Creed They professed to keep close to the Old Faith without adding any thing to it because they added not any new Articles but only more largely and fully explained the old ones In short they came off from this Exception of Vossius as they thought by calling their Additions by the Name of Explications and Declarations not of Additions But 2 If they had directly said that they thought fit to inlarge the Creed made by the Apostles by some other Doctrines taken from the New Testament I do not think that this is the worst thing of the kind that Mother Church ever did 'T is known to all the World that she has added to and taken away from the Sacraments and the Scriptures therefore 't is no such great wonder if also she turned her own Doctrines into Creeds and mingled her Articles with the Articles of the Apostles From the Sacrament of the Supper she hath taken away the Cup and in the same Sacrament has changed unleavened Bread into leavened The Sacrament of Baptism she hath wholly changed turning it into the mimical Rite of sprinkling and also added the Cross to that false Baptism which she administers As for the Scriptures all learned Criticks even of the Trinitarian Perswasion agree that abundance of Words and some whole Texts have been added 'T is uncontestable that they have added there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the WORD and the Holy Ghost and these three are one It was expresly denied at the first Council of Nice it self that the Apostle Paul said Great is the Mystery of Godliness GOD was manifested in the Flesh but which which Mystery was manifested by Flesh namely by the Lord Christ and the Apostles And to omit many other certain and yielded Depravations of Scripture both by adding and omitting there are shrewd Presumptions that to the Institution of Baptism by our Saviour in the Gospel of St. Matthew these Words have been added In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It appears in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles that the Apostles never baptized in that Form of Words but only in the Name of the Lord Jesus But we need no more but the Testimony of one of their own Historians St. Epiphanius concerning the Fidelity of the Church as the prevailing Party always calls it self in preserving pure and intire the Oracles of God Epiphanius owns in direct terms that the Orthodox put out of their Bibles some Passages of Scripture which they liked not and the Bibles of his time that had not been so used this good Father roundly calls them the Bibles that have not been rectified Ancor n. 31. 3. Vossius saith farther that none of the Ecclesiastical Historians tho they have set down the Creeds made in Councils have recorded the Creed of the Apostles thus Socrates and others register not only the Creeds made in legitimate Councils but even those by the Arian Councils but they have not a Word of the Apostles Creed To this I say 1. Socrates and the Historians that follow him begin their Histories at soonest no higher than the Conversion of Great Constantine to the Christian Faith Therefore 't is no wonder that tho they record the Creeds in order as they were composed by the Councils that assembled under Great Constantine and his Successors yet they say nothing of the Apostles Creed which belonged