being indeed the Articles of the Creed viz That there is but one God who made all things of nothing That this God sent his Sonne our Lord Jesus Christ begotten of the Father before every Creature by whom all Creatures were made He was incarnate and made man assuming a Body like in all things to us but that it was borne of the Virgin being conceived by the Holy Ghost He truly Dyed not in apearance the comon death of all men for he truly rose againe Having converst with his Disciples after his Resurrection he was taken up into Heaven That the Holy Ghost is associate with the Father and Sonne in the same Honor and Dignity there shall be a time for the Resurrection of the Dead when this body which is sowne in corruption shall rise in incorruption and that which is sowne in dishonor shall rise in glory This world was made and had a certaine time of begining and by reason of ' its corruptability shall be at length dissolved That there are certain Angels of God and good spirits which minister unto him in procuring the salvation of man kind He adds at last an other Traditionall Foundation viz. That the Scriptures were written by the Holy Ghost After all he concluds oportet igitur velut elementis ac fundamentis hujusmodi uti That we ought to make use of these as the first Elemens and Grounds of Christian Religion which he accordingly explaines at large in those foure bookes of his entituled therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Principles of Christianity a worke fit for his office of Catachist which he bore for many years in the Church of Alexandria 4. Marcellus Bishope of Ancyra in Gallatia fellowsuferer with the great Athanasius being accused by the Arians of Sabellianisme as Athanasius also was and by their means expeld his Bishoprick flies unto Iulius Bishope of Rome for succour and having long there in vaine expected his adversaries comming by confronting of whom he desired to have accquitted himselfe at length weary of longer stay he takes his leave of Iulius and leaves behind him an Epistle wherein he makes this Profession of Faith exceeding conformable to that of the Apostles as we read it at this Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is I Believe in God Almighty and in Jesus Christ his only-begotten Sonne our Lord conceived by the Holy Ghost and borne of the Virgin Mary crucifyed under Pontius Pilate and buried the third Day he rose againe from the Dead he ascended into the Heavens and sitteth at the right hand of the Father whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Church the forgivenesse of sinnes the resurrection of the Body the Life Everlasting But this is not all to shew that this Creed was not of his own framing a little after he subjoynes these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Having received this Faith from the holy Scriptures and being taught it of my spirituall Progenitors or Divine Ancestors I both Preach it in the Church of God and have now wrote it unto thee O Iulius This Epistle with the foresaid Creed inclosed we find recorded by Epiphanius in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haeres 72. Now whom doth Marcellus meane by his Progenitors or Ancestors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to or in God Sure he understands either his Godfathers at the Font or the Bishops of the Church by whom he was instructed in the Ancient Faith Or lastly which seemes to me most probable the Apostles themselves who were the true and proper Fathers or Founders of the Christian Church whence that of S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Though you have ten thousand Instructers or Pedagogues in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers It followes there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For in Iesus Christ I have begotten you through the Gospell 1 Cor. 4. 15. 5. S. Basil the Great in his Tract 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the Creed or Christian Faith sets downe this Symbole or Confession thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is We Believe and professe one only true and good God the Father Almighty of whom are all Things the God and Father of our Lord and God Jesus Christ and one only begotten Sonne of his our Lord and God Jesus Christ the only True one by whom all things were made both visible and invisible and by whom all things consist who was in the Begining with God and was God and afterward according to the Scripture he appeared upon Earth and conversed with men being in the forme of God he thought it not robbery to be equall with God yet he made himselfe of no reputation and taking upon him the forme of a Servant by being borne of a Virgin and being found in fashion as a man he fulfilled all things which concerned him and were written of him according to the commandment of his Father he became obedient to the Death even the Death of the Crosse and the third Day arising from the Dead according to the Scriptures he appeared to his holy Disciples and to the Rest according as it is written he ascended into the Heavens and sitteth on the right hand of the Father from whence he shall come at the end of this world to raise up all and to render to every one according to his workes when the righteous shall be taken into Life Eternall and the Kingdome of Heaven and the sinners shall be condemned to everlasting punishment where their worme dieth not and the fire is not quenched And in one only Holy Ghost the Comforter by whom we are sealed to the day of Redemption the Spirit of Truth Here we have all the Articles of the Creed but two viz. The Beleefe of the Holy Catholick Church and the forgivenes of sinnes which he sets downe in the ensuing words wherein he largely descants on the gifts of the Holy Ghost towards the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By which Spirit we are sealed unto the day of Redemption the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of Adoption by whom we cry Abba Father which distributeth and effecteth in every one the Graces of God unto edification according to his pleasure the good Spirit which leadeth into all Truth and establisheth all that believe in the true and exact knowledge in the Godly and Spirituall service and worship and true confession of God the Father and his only-begotten Sonne c. Concluding thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus we think and thus we baptize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a coessentiall Trinity according to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ who said goe and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sone and of the Holy Ghost A little after he intimates from whom he received the foresaid confession of faith namely from Christ and his Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I beseech you saith
reason challenge a belief contrary to the verdict of so many grave Authors so much Ancienter than he especially in a matter of fact such as this is But I suppose Meletius in those words absolutely denies not that Athanasius was the Author of the Creed now entitled to him but that it is not to be fathered on him as 't is now read in the Westerne Church with the Appendix filioque added thereto by the Bishops of Rome but not Originally inserted as he conceives by Athanasius of which I have already spoken Ob. 8. Nazianzens Testimony concerning Athanasius his Creed or Confession of Faith is to be understood of the latter end of that Synodicall Epistle which he sent to the Emperour Jovianus wherein after he had set downe the Nicene Creed he addes these wordes Nonnulli hanc Fidem a Patribus in Concilio Niceno confirmatam antiquare non sunt veriti alii vero simulant assentiri illi reipsâ autem pernegant dum hanc vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perversè interpretantur iisdemque in Spiritum Sanctum loquuntur blasphemè asserendo eum creatum esse factum per filium That is Some have not been afraid to abrogate this Faith Established in the Nicene Councell others there be who feigne to receive it but in truth reject it whilest they interpret the word Homâ—ousion in a perverse sense the same men speake also blaspheamously against the Holy Ghost affirming that he was created and made by the Sonne Then in the close they say Quinetiam neque Spiritum Sanctum a Patre Filio separârunt sed ei unà cum Patre Filio in unâ sanctae Trinitatis fide propterea quod una est in sancta Trinitate Divinitas gloriam tribuerunt That is Neither did they separate the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Sonne but ascribed glory to him together with the Father and the Sonne in the same faith of the holy Trinity because there is but one Divinity in the holy Trinity Theod. hist lib. 4. cap. 3. Answ Whether or no this fragment this foot this Appendix of an Epistle deserve the Title of a Confession of Faith so venerably esteemed by the Churches of East and West of Libellus a Declaration of a Guift truly Royall and Magnificent with which Titles Nazianzen in that place honours Athanasius his Creed let the impartiall Reader judge Besides we may observe for our fuller satisfaction in this particular 1. That these words which the Objector calls Athanasius his Creed referre not to him and to the Bishops of his Patriarchate who wrote the said Epistle but to the Fathers of the Nicene Councell for they run in the third Person neque separarunt gloriam tribuerunt not in the first neque separavimus gloriam tribuimus Therefore they relate to those Fathers who made the Nicene Creed which is immediatly prefixt not to the Bishops who sent this Synodicall Epistle 2. That this Synodicall Epistle was sent in the name of all the Bishops of Egypt Thebais and Lybia whereas the Confession of Faith written by Athanasius was attested by him only or by very few besides So witnesseth Nazianzen in his forecited Oration Primus ille solus aut cum admodùm paucis veritatem palam apertisque verbis promulgare non dubitavit unam trium personarum Divinitatem essentiam scripto confessus quod multis illis Patribus circa Filium prius concessum fuerat idem ipse postea in asserendâ Spiritus Sancti Divinitate superno afflatu consecutus Atque Imperatori donum vere Regium magnificum offert c. That is He first of all and alone or accompanied with very few doubted not to publish the Truth openly and in expresse Termes professing in writing one Deity and Essence of three Persons and that which God had formerly granted to many Fathers viz. the Nicene concerning the Sonne Athanasius obtained the same afterwards by an inspiration from above to assert the Divinity of the Holy Ghost And he presents the Emperour with a Gift truly Royall and Magnificent c. Of what Creed or Confession of Faith can these Words be understood but of that which now bears the name of Athanasius wherein he so clearely and at large asserts the great mystery of the Trinity in Unity and in particular the Divinity of the Holy Ghost in these words The Holy Ghost also is God such as the Father is such is the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Sonne neither made nor created nor begotten but Proceeding Whereas the Nicene Fathers had only vindicated the Divinity of the Sonne then called in question by Arius and his Adherents as Nazianzen heere tels us 3. Nazianzen informes us here of the Time when Athanasius wrote his Creed when very very few 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 durst openly professe the true faith which must needs be meant of the Times immediatly succeeding the Death of Constantine the Great or when he was first deposed by the Synod of Tyre and banished to Triers by the importune calumnies and violence of the Arian Party in the latter end of his Reigne for then there appeared but three Bishops in the cause with him who were in like manner faine to fly into the West as Sozomen witnesseth lib. 3. cap. 7. Whereas after this in the yeare 347. there was a Synod of Orthodox Bishops called together at Sardica a City of Illyricum who professed the Nicene Faith and when Athanasius sent the forenamed Epistle to the Emperour Jovianus his whole Patriarchate subscribed together with him to the Nicene Creed therein inclosed the Emperour being then a Catholick Wherefore it is most probable that Athanasius first wrote his Creed at Triers or when he fled to Iulius Bishop of Rome for succour which Creed he afterwards sent also with that Synodicall Epistle to the Emperour Iovianus by whom he was restored to his See thereby to confute his Adversaries who would have had the World believe that he was justly condemned as erroneous in the Faith The Epistle he sent in the name of the whole Synod The Creed in his own THE SECOND APPENDIX OF THE Nicene or Constantinopolitan CREED CAP. I. The Reason of the double name of this Creed The Composure thereof The Additionall or Exegeticall Particles inserted into it When and by Whom it was conveied to other Churches and brought into Divine Service THIS Creed hath a double name from a double Councell whereof the one began and the other finisht it It was begun in the First generall Councell held at Nice in Bithynia in the yeare 325 thence called the Nicene Creed But it was recited approved and enlarged as now wee have it by the second generall Councell held at Constantinople in the yeare 381 thence called the Constantinopolitan Creed by many latter writers The Nicene Fathers being 318 in number all subscribed to it except five who adhered to Arius and would not acknowledge the Sonne to be of the same Essence or
Division become none as a great entire streame looseth it self and is quite dried up when parted into severall small Channels Now that this day is neere approaching these sad Prognosticks tell us especially the latter wherewith the present Age so greivously labours all which mischeife both heretofore arose amongst us and now tyrannizeth over us for want of a sure Rule or Ground of faith rightly understood and applied The holy Scripture indeed is an aboundantly sufficient Ground of our Beleife and Rule of manners but being exposed as now adayes it is to every mans private Fancy the Glosse too too oft wyer-drawes and corrupts the Text so that we look upon Gods word through a false-coloured Glasse Pretences of a private Spirit and enthusiasticall Revelations with the Anabaptist of right Reason with the Sosinian which is as diverse in men as their fancies or faces make what they please of Scripture and force it to speak their mind thus by perverting it to their own sense they are not judged by but judge the Law and become as S. James in a like Case saith James 4. 11. Not Doers or Beleevers of the Law but Judges The Apostles those renowned Patriarchs of the Christian faith foreseing this evill left us a double Remedy both by Tradition preserved in the Church to be delivered down unto all Ages from hand to hand viz. a Rule or Ground of faith and the exposition or right applying of this Rule The Ground or Rule in the Creed composed by themselves as a Summary of the points of Faith which lie dispersedly here and there in the large volume of the Scriptures The undoubted Exposition and right applying of this Rule they have left us in the writings of the Fathers who were their Successours to whose care and custody they not only committed the Oracles of God in writing and the Creed by word of mouth but the interpretation also of both as they heard them expounded from their own mouthes whil'st they lived and preached amongst them for in vaine had the Apostles given them the words if they had not given them the sense withall whereby to stop the mouthes of Hereticks who arose even at the first preaching of the Gospell as we may see in S. Pauls Epistles This orthodoxe sense is that which is so frequently mentioned in the writings of the Ancient Fathers under the name of Depositum Catholica seu Apostolica Traditio fides Ecclesiae and the like expressions and which Tertullian makes use of to confound the whole Hydra of Heresies in his Book De Praeser adu Haeret. bidding the Hereticks goe to those mother-Churches which the Apostles founded and personally resided in and to which they committed the true genuine Faith where saith he yee shall heare no newes of your upstart heterodoxe Doctrines invented by yourselves wherewith this proud factious Generation infested the Church and led away after them many seduced Proselytes Of this Tradition S. Paul speaks to his Disciple Timothy whom he had left behind him as his Deputy at Ephesus The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithfull men who shall be able to teach others also 2 Tim 2. 2. And to the Church of Thessalonica Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which yee have bin taught whether by word or our Epistle 2 Thes 2. 15. comp v. 5. 6. Observe here the cunning of Satan whereby in all Times but especially in these last and worst he makes way by these his fore-runners for the comming of that great Anti-christ He hath set men on work under pretence of honouring Scripture as the sole Al-sufficient Rule of Faith and of withdrawing themselves from all dangerous Dependance on mens erroneous judgments seeing every man is a liar wholy referring and submitting themselves to the Holy Ghost to be enlightened guided and directed by him some to render suspected others by degrees to enervate and secretly subvert a third sort openly to decry the judgment and Decisions of the Church in the Councils and Fathers when in the interim they are grossly and willingly ignorant that what they denie to Her they ascribe to themselves strongly and confidently asserting that to be the sole meaning of the Holy Ghost which agrees with their opinions confirmes their fore-received Tenents and favours their Side and Faction Now let all the world judge if it will be but an indifferent Arbiter whether it be not more equall to be judged in point of Religion by reverend Antiquity then by upstart giddy Novelty By the Consent of so many Auncient Worthies who living long before our Times are uninteressed and disengaged in our Quarrels then by the partiall Determinations of men educated in and addicted to a Faction By the joynt consent of many then the singular opinion of some one By men eminent for Learning who therefore well could not and for Piety who therefore would not deceive us then by the conceited Ignorance and factious spirit of some proud Novellist start up in this declining wicked Atheisticall Age By those who lived neerest the Apostles Times when the Church was one undevided into Greeke and Latine Romish and Reformed Lutheran and Calvinian when Tradition was fresh and uncorrupted like a streame running pure neere the Fountaine-head which afterwards gathered Dreggs by running farther into the more remote and succeeding Ages then by the Schismatical Directions of latter degenerate corrupt Times Lastly which is farre the most effectuall Argument by those who as they had newly received so constantly unanimously and uncorruptly held the Doctrinall Traditions of the Apostles the genuine sense of Scripture which they themselves left behind them who left the Scripture it selfe then to pinne our Religion upon the sleeves of some Idolized Innovatour who though he pretend the Authority of Gods Word an unerring spirit or the cleare inducements of Reason yet in truth hath nothing but Impudence and his Ipse dixit to maintaine his Assertions This Tradition it is which made the Auncient Bishops and Doctors of the Primitive Church so unanimous among themselves in what Part of the World soever they lived as having the same Deliverers of it who planted all those Churches wherein they succeeded and so taught in all as who received it from the same spirit who received it from the same Christ who received it from the same God the Father as Tertullian deduceth its Pedegree out of St Iohns Gospel Ch. 16. 13. 14 and Ch. 8. 28. Else if they had followed their own private judgements they must needs have often varied in their Determinations Hence it is that they make a great Distinction betweene what they received and published to the world as Depositaries Witnesses Historians and what Expositions or Conclusions they drew from their owne Braines as being their private Opinions in the latter they leave every man to his owne Censure and Judgment to receive or reject them as they find them Consonant to Scripture Antiquity and right Reason but
in the former they require an absolute Assent and condemne them all for Hereticks who goe not along with them in the same Path in that they shewed there modesty in this their Piety The Fathers being thus cashired and appealed from as unmeet illegall Judges because obnoxious to errour which hath been laboured to be made good by publishing som few paradoxicall Tenents found in the writings of some one or few of them which they conceive to be Errours though many of them perhaps will not appeare such upon due examination and after all their undutifull malicious Search whereby like Cham they have laid open their Fathers nakednesse they cannot finde one palpable Errour which they can justly lay to the charge of all or a major part of them thus at last missing their aime they proceed farther to call the Creed in question that undoubted Rule and Foundation of the Christian Faith which the Apostles with so much care Composed and left unto the Church as a most pretious Depositum the lydius lapis or Touchstone of the Catholick Beliefe and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Orthodoxe Professours They have called both the Authors and Authority in question first by doubting of and raising scruples against it then absolutely denying and laying down Arguments to disprove those Authours to whom it hath been constantly entitled for they both fall together take away the Authours and the Authority will soone vanish for if the Creed were not framed by the Apostles but collected out of Scripture by some uncertain and obscure Composer or Composers whose names are buried in forgetfulnesse seeing it containes some Articles which are not set down totidem verbis in any determinate Place of Holy Writ 't were possible that some Points might be mistaken not rightly gathered or deducted as by a fallible Hand and so the whole Frame of it of no more Authority then some peice of a Father or the Canon of a Councill if so much For though it be granted that all the Articles of the Creed be either expresse words of Scripture or by an undoubted consequence deducible from it yet the drawing of these Articles forth of Scripture requires an unerring and Divinely-guided Hand First because none else can know which is an Article of Faith that is a Fundamentall or Point necessary to Salvation who is not divinely informed of Gods will and pleasure in this matter Secondly because the Judge of the consequence must be infallible for otherwise it oft fals out that what in one mans judgment is a necessary Deduction is not so in anothers but probable only or perhaps false else we should have had lesse about the Trinity and Incarnation two maine points of our Faith to name no lesser ones Having removed these two Forts out of their way and demolished these Propugnacula fidei thē after they may safely build what new Fabricks they please upon the abused Groundwork of Scripture or rather having digg'd up the Groundwork of the Creed lay Reason for a new Foundation on which to build Castles in the Aire imaginary structures much like the enchanted Fortresses dream't of in the Monkish Romances then they may entertaine whatsoever strange fancies they please Fancies which unconstantly hover up and down in the Braine like so many Cloudes in the middle Region carried hither and thither by the wind and presenting now this now that monstrous shape having removed these two Bounds of Faith they may wander in the large field of Scripture at randome scatter here there what pernicious seeds they please root up what was already sowen confound the furrowes mixe adulterate graines with the pure seed of the word thus making havock of all and turning the field into a Wildernesse And though they seem to honour Scripture and appeale to it as the sole adequate Rule of Theologicall Truth yet in truth they use it but as a colour to set off their new-fangled Inventions the opinions bred within themselves and so wrest it to serve their own Turnes for where ever it seems to oppose them they strait accuse the Copie of Bastardy that such or such a Passage hath crept out of the Margin or Glosse into the Text or the place hath been interlaced by some of the adverse Party some opposite Father they alter at pleasure points letters words yea dash out whole verses and after all torture the poore Remainder till they have forced it to beare witnesse on their side and speak what they would have it take but for instance the beginning of S. Johns Gospell as 't is expounded by Volkelius If they should openly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reject Scripture they would be exploded and expell'd out of Christian Common-wealths and so hindered from doing mischiefe but now the Divels craft makes use of those to undermine and subvert holy Scripture who seem most to stand for it and to perswade the doctrines of men who seem most to decry them In a word the body of Socinianisme to which we may now adde some other new Sects is compounded like some Hydra or Chymera or what other horrid Poeticall monster of the must pestilent poysonous Heresies which the Church hath ever laboured under or cōdemned in all Ages And wheras this Age hath bin much given to Systems and Compendium's least we should want one in any kind these men have furnisht us with an Epitome of Heresies a Breviary of Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea which is worse yet they have opened a large Gap for more by making weak depraved Reason without any other light or guide however the Scripture be pretended the sole Judg of Truth by abolishing faith that Reason may be exalted in her Place that Reason which is never the same or constant to it self either in diverse men or the same man at diverse times yet though they so much cry up liberty of Opinion they themselves are unwittingly though willingly Slaves to Socinus else why doe they all follow him so close was he the only unerring Guide the monopolizer of Reason The Socinians indeed outwardly receive the Canon of Scripture much extoll it to keep up their credit with the Christian world but expounding it as they doe in their own Sense contrary to the received Interpretation of the Ancients from by whose hands they received the Canon it selfe they doe as good as not receive it for the Scripture consists in the sense not in the words And whosoever shall take a full survey of their opinions will find that they imbrace no mystery therein revealed but only what is demōstrable by or at least fals within the Sphere of bare Reason the light of nature All the rest which appeare either opposite unto Reason or placed above it as the mysteries of the Trinity the Hypostaticall union Christs satisfaction for the sin of mankind the Resurrection of the same numericall Body the everlasting punishment of the damned for temporall faults c. they cannot away with because they can
only against their opposers but against all those too who concurre not with them in every tittle and Ioâ—a whether negative Errours condemned or positive Doctrines asserted So that now Ecclesiam quaerimus in Ecclesiâ we have even lost the Church among so many Conventicles we have as many Religions as Families and those too not seldome disagreeing yet all appropriating Salvation to themselves Every one takes upon him to be a Pope the name so much in shew detested and seats himselfe in his usurped Chaire as an infallible Judge guided by the Dictates of the Spirit so that one knows not whom to adhere to especially weake and ignorant Christians are most dangerously scandalized And we heard of one not long agoe in Holland who whether out of Pride or Despaire I know not had contracted the Church within the small compasse of his own Microcosme and upon that Ground true Baptisme being annext unto the true Church he Baptized himselfe thence called the Se-Baptist Now what course might be taken to heale these numerous wounds sure they would all close up of themselves if all Christians would have recourse to this Ancient Catholick and undoubted Rule beleeving as much requiring no more And by the way we may account it none of the least Blemishes in the face of our Church that so many private Catechismes with other Tracts of the like nature have been suffered to fly abroad from every quarter not a few of them for I should offend as much against Truth as modesty to censure all erronious most of them defective in the maine Points yet stuff'd with uncertainties and impertinencies which instead of Fundamentals give us Circumstantials and Appendixes instead of a sound Body of Credenda's haire and nailes if not boiles and botches Thus have the tender Plants in the faire Garden of this Church been partly infected with a poysonous joyce partly made crooked and deformed in their Infancy whilst they have bent themselves towards this or that Pamphleter like those heretofore in the Church of Corinth who said I am of Paul I of Apollo's and I of Cephas and 't were well they had no worse Tutours to the great prejudice of verity and utter bane of unity Now all this might have been prevented if they had not thus from the Birth been put forth to strange Nurses but caused to suck the Brests of their true Mother the Church of England for S. Paul cals the first Rudiments of the Christian Religion Milke a nourishment fit for Babes a good portion of which Milk is contain'd in the Creed which therefore is stiled by S. Cyril Patriarch of Jerusalem ParvuloruÌ„ in Christo lactea Introductio Catech. 4. But before I enter upon the Body of the Creed which I purpose to treat of hereafter as God shall give me life and strength meanes and leasure I conceave it will be expedient if not wholy necessary to lay down by way of Preface or Introduction some Prolegomena which I shall reduce to these five Heads the Bounds of my insuing Discourse 1. That the Apostles were the Authours or Composers of the Creed which beares their Name 2. The Grounds upon which and the Ends for which the Apostles framed it where I shall speak also of the Sufficiency of the Creed for the Rule of the Christian Faith 3. The severall Reasons of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Title it beares in the Originall Greek 4. The Division or Parts of it 5. By way of Appendix I shall adde two Diatriba's or Discourses concerning the Nicene Creed and that of Athanasius especially the latter because most questioned which the Catholick Church and particulary the Church of England in her eighth Article hath joyntly received with that of the Apostles and are larger explications of it especially in the two maine Points of the Trinity and Incarnation then called in question and perverted by Arius and Macedonius But before I proceed to the handling of these particulars it will be requisite to remove some Doubts which may arise against what I have already writteÌ„ thus clearing my way as I go of al Imaginary rubs obstacles Ob. 1. The denying of the Apostles to be the Authours of the Creed doth not seem to weaken or shake any Ground by which we may prove a Trinity first because every Article of the Creed is confess'd to be in Scripture Then because no other Argument is pretended to be fetcht from the Creed for the proofe thereof but this that the Phrase Credo In is attributed to the Sonne and Holy Ghost as well as to God the Father but not so to the Catholick Church or to the Articles which follow it whereas this seemes to be a groundlesse Proofe for in the Scripture and the best Authours Credere in Deum in Deo Deo are promiscuously taken as signifying the same Thing So we Read Exod. 14. 31. Crediderunt in Dominum in Mosem They beleeved in God and in Moses which the 70 render ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus construing it for a meere Historicall assent So also 1 Sam. 27. 12. Achish beleeved in Davidem in David according to the Heb. that is he beleeved David And 1 Joh. 5. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beleeved not in the Testimony is no more but to believe the testimony not to be true The Creed of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in some auncient Latine Copies of the Apostles Creed we read Credo in Ecclesiam Catholicam in remissionem Peccatorum c. Particularly in a very old MS. in BIBL BODL we have Credo in Spiritu Sancto Sanctâ Ecclesiâ remissione Peccatorum c. Answ Every Article of the Creed is confest to be in Scripture either in expresse words or by necessary Consequence one of which Consequences or Conclusions is the Doctrine of the Trinity gathered by Apostolicall hands and placed in their Creed for who else could Infallibly collect it and impose it on the Faith of Christians As for the particle Credo in which as Stephanus observes in his Thesaurus is a phrase peculiar to Christian Divines it s being applied to the three Persons in the Sacred Trinity to none else in Propriety of speech is a sufficient Argument for the proof of that high Mistery so generally understood by the Latine Fathers S. Aug. Serm. 181. De Temp. upon those words of the Creed Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam saith thus Sciendum est quod Ecclesiam credere non tamen in Ecclesiam credere debemus quia Ecclesia non Deus sed domus Dei est we must know that we ought to beleeve the Church not in the Church for the Church is not God but the Household of God Ruffinus in his Exposition of the Creed on the same Article of the Church non dixit in Sanctam Ecclesiam nec in remissionem Peccatorum nec in carnis Resurrectionem si enim addidisset In praepositionem una eademque vis fuisset cum Superioribus nunc
autem in illis quidem vocabulis ubi de Divinitate fides ordinatur In Deum Patrem dicitur In Jesum Christum Filium ejus in Spiritum Sanctum In caeteris verò ubi non de Divinitate sed de Creaturis ac Mysteriis sermo est In praepositio non additur ut dicatur In Sanctam Ecclesiam sed Sanctam Ecclesiam credendam esse non ut in Deum sed ut Ecclesiam Deo congregatam Remissionem Peccatorum credendam esse non in remissionem peccatorum resurrectionem carnis non in resurrectionem carnis Hac itaque Praepositionis syllabâ Creator à Creaturis secernitur divina separantur ab humanis that is He said not In the holy Church nor in the forgivenesse of sinnes nor in the resurrection of the Body for if he had added the Preposition In there had been the same sense with what went before but now in those passages of the Creed wherein our faith concerning God is digested we say In God the Father and in Jesus Christ his Sonne and in the Holy Ghost but in the residue which speak of the Creatures and the mysteries relating to them the Preposition In is not added for we say not I beleeve in the Holy Church but I beleeve the Holy Church not as in God but as the Church gathered to God likewise we are to beleeve the remission of sinnes not in the remission of sinnes and the resurrection of the Body not in the resurrection of the Body So by this short Preposition the Creatour is distinguished from the Creature and God from man Now Ruffinus was one very well skill'd in the Greek Tongue as who Translated much of Origen out of that Language as well as in the Latine and so deserves the more credit in judging of the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Credo in Paschasius also in his Book de Spiritu Saucto written against Macedonius vindicates the true Writing and sense of the Creed as touching this particular in these words Credimus Ecclesiam quasi Regenerationis Matrem non in Ecclesiam credimus quasi in Salutis Authorem nam cum hoc de Spiritu Sancto universa confiteatur Ecclesia numquid in seipsam credere potest qui in Ecclesiam credit in Hominem credit non enim Homo ex Ecclesiâ sed Ecclesia esse caepit ex Homine recede itaque ex hac Blasphemiae persuasione ut in aliquam humanam te aestimes debere credere Creaturam cum omninò nec in Angelum nec in Archangelum sit credendum nonnullorum imperitia praepositionem hanc In velut de proximà vicinaque sentintiâ in consequentem traxit ac rapuit ex superfluo imprudentur apposuit in nullis autem Canonicis de quibus textus Symbolipendet accepimus quia in Ecclesiam credere sicut in Spiritum Sanctum Filiumque debeamus Et ideò cum ab hoc Honore Creatura omnis aliena sit hic in quem credere praecipimur viz. Spiritus Sanctus Deus est quod verbum Divinitati specialiter vox Domini Salvatoris assignat ita dicens Credite in Deum in me credite Et iterum Qui credit in me non credit in me sed in eum qui me misit that is We beleeve the Church as the Mother of our new Birth not in the Church as in the Authour of Salvation For when as the whole Church professeth this of the Holy Ghost can she beleeve also in her selfe He who beleeveth in the Church beleeveth in man for man sprung not from the Church but the Church from man be farre therefore from this Blasphemous perswasion as to think that thou oughtest to beleeve in any humane Creature whereas our Faith is not to be placed no not in an Angel or Archangel The unskilfulnesse of some hath caused them to take the Preposition In from the neighbouring sentence which went before and to apply it to the subsequent rashly imprudently and superfluously whereas we are not warranted by any of the Canonicall Books on which the Text of the Creed depends to beleeve in the Church as we ought to beleeve in the holy Ghost and the Sonne and therefore seeing this Honour is not communicable to any Creature he in whom we are commanded to beleeve namely the holy Ghost is God hence also our Saviour especially applieth this word unto the Divinity saying thus yee beleeve in God beleeve also in me And againe He that beleeveth in me beleeveth not in me but in him that sent me Thus did these Fathers read this Article of the Creed and thus they understood it Credo in that is Colloco fiduciam in Deo which the Scripture appropriats to God alone as to the peculiar object of our Trust and Confidence and wholy denies to Creatures See Psal 146. 3. 44. 7. Jer. 17. 5. 1 Tim. 6. 17. As for that place Exod. 14. 31. the Hebrew word there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used signifies properly to beleeve the truth or Fidelity of one so may well agree to Moses who spake to the People in Gods name and had so often confirmed the truth of his words by the following miraculous Successe now the word is usually joyned in Construction with a Noune of the Ablative Case having the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prefixt which is the signe of that Case and therefore should be rather translated if we follow the Hebraisme close Crediderunt in Deo in Mose However the sense is this They beleeved Gods word spoken to them by Moses God as the Author Moses as the Messenger So here 's no opposition but a Subordination and therefore no Derogation to Gods Prerogative But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke and Credo in in the Latine are phrases implying more and answer to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to depend or rely on an Infinite Power and goodnesse which therefore both can and will deliver us from all evill and conferre in due time all Good upon us now this is peculiar to God alone and therefore appropriated to him both in the Scripture and Fathers The Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew is I confesse oft superfluous Thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and In in the Latine which answer to it sometimes redound in the Scriptures Creeds and Fathers in their translations out of the Hebrew or imitations of that sacred Tongue yet not alwayes Now to know when these Particles redound when not we are to compare them with other Parallell places of Scripture and Copies of the Creed and then we shall find that though some Greeke Copies of the Creed prefixe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Article of the Church and the three subsequent ones yet others as those of Marcellus Anoyranus and Chrysostome hereafter to be alleaged omitt it as superfluous but still religiously retaine it in the precedent Articles of the Sonne and Holy Ghost by
linguae sedissent ut loquelis adversis variisque loquerentur per quas nulla eis Gens extera nulla linguae barbaries inaccessa videretur invia praeceptum eis a Domino datum ob praedicandum Dei verbum ad singulas quemque proficisci nationes Discessuri itaque ab invicem normam priùs futurae Praedicationis in commune constituunt ne fortè alias ab alio abducti diversum aliquid his qui ad fidem Christi invitabantur exponerent Omnes Ergò in uno positi Spiritu Sancto repleti breve istud futurae sibi ut diximus Praedicationis Indicium conferendo in unum quod sentiebat unusquisque componunt atque hanc credentibus dandam esse Regulam statuunt c. The summe is this We have received from our Auncestours that after the Ascension of our Saviour into Heaven and the Descent of the Holy Ghost from thence in the shape of Fiery Tongues on the Day of Pentecost the Apostles inabled with the gift of Tongues to Preach unto the most remote and Barbarous Nations prepared themselves accordingly to fulfill their Lords Command for the more convenient and ready Discharg of which Duty though authorized they were to Preach indifferently unto all yet they sorted themselves into severall Provinces But before they went on this Embassie being assembled together and inspired from above they Compiled the Summary of the Christian Faith as the Ground-worke of all their Preaching and as a constant uniforme Rule of Beleefe to all their Auditours whom they perswaded to imbrace the Christian Beleefe least otherwise they might Preach more variously and at randome And this they left behind them both as a Symbole or Token of their Faith munimentum fidei ex lapidibus vivis margaritis Dominicis which neither Winds nor Stormes can subvert and of their Unanimity as being now ready to depart each from other not as the Sonnes of Noah built the Tower of Babel and were therefore punish'd with confusion of Language being not able to understand each others Speech for these indued with the knowledge of all Tongues Turrim fidei unanimes construebant ut illud Peccati hoc Fidei probaretur Indicium Thus far Ruffinus Now the Apostles having thus Composed their Creed they committed it not to writing but delivered it by word of mouth to the Bishops of the Churches their Successours So witnesse besides Ruffinus here St Ierome Cyril of Ierusalem and Chrysologus yea many yeares before them Irenaeus and Tertullian as I shall shew anon The reasons of which manner of Delivery are thus assigned by the same Fathers 1. Vt certum esset neminem haec ex lectione quae interdum peruenire etiam ad infideles solet sed ex Apostolorum traditione didicisse sufficeret So Ruffinus That it might not come by some unhappy chance into the hands of Heathens and Infidels to whom as Dogs these holy Mysteries of the Christian Faith were not to be cast least they should misconstrue or deride Profane or pollute them to their own greater Damnation the Discouragement and Scandall of the weake Christian and the Dishonour of Religion And to this well agrees the signification of the word Symbolum which Title the Creed of old hath borne and most properly imports a watchword now a watchword we know is given by word of mouth not in paper least the Enemy hap to come unto the knowledge of it 2. Observa fidem saith Cyril of Jerusalem à solâ Ecclesiâ tibi nunc traditam ex omni Scripturâ munitam non in Chartâ scribendo sed in Corde memoriam ejus insculpendo necubi Catechumenus ea qua vobis tradita sunt exaudiat Catech. 5. It seemes by him in this Place that the very Catechumeni who were instructed in the Principles of the Christian Catechisme were not acquainted yet with all the Mysteries of the Creed untill they came to Baptisme some Articles were to hard meat even for them to digest Our Saviour hath a like speech to this purpose Jo. 16. 12. 3. Accepturi Symbolum saith Chrysologus Pectora parate non Chartam quia committi non potest caducis corruptibilibus Instrumentis aeternum coeleste Secretum sed in ipsa areâ animae in ipsa Bibliothecâ interni spiritus est locandum ne profanus Arbiter ne improbus quod dilaceret Discussor inveniat fiat ad contemnentis ignorantis ruinam quod confitentis credentis donatum est ad Salutem It suits with the Dignity of the Creed to be ingraven in no other Table then the Heart of man with the safety of Christians that they receive it no otherwise then from the mouth of their Pastour with his short but sound exposition thereof Serm. 58. 4. The same Father in his 61 Sermon gives this Reasan Hoc monemus ne quis committat literis quod est Corde mandaturus ut credat Apostolo sic monente Corde creditur ad justiam Ore autem confessio fit ad salutem Rom. 10. 10. The Confession of our Faith which we make in the Creed hath the Heart for its Mother the mouth for its Midwife the Pen hath nothing to doe here So the Groundwork of this Tradition is laid by S. Paul if we may trust the judgment of Chrysologus 5. The Creed is best and most safely preserved by Tradition especially being so short an Epitome of the Christian faith whereas Memory trusting to Paper is lesse carefull of retaining and we daily see what doubts and disputes there arise amongst Criticks about the diversity of Copies in the Transcription of our Sacred Books and what Errours of the Transcribers Nihil securum quod extra animum fertur Those two great Philosophers Pythagoras and Socrates whom we may justly stile the Fathers of the Rest are observed to have wrote nothing neither did a far greater then They our Blessed Saviour Lycurgu's Laws by a bare Tradition were kept inviolate above 500 years when those of Solon diligently engraven in wood carefully laid up were notwithstanding soon forgoten frequently broken in the Lawgivers own life-time Yea we see by experience both in ludicrous toyes as in Childrens sports and in weightier matters as in the severall Habits Customes of Nations that without any Law written they are both more easily retained and more carefully observed But because I foresee that this last Reason will meet with opposition I shall indeavour to cleare and confirme it both by satisfying those Doubts which probably may arise against it It will be objected that the Creed is not most safely preserved by Tradition because severall Copies thereof doe not a little vary That it seemes very strange a Thing should be safer kept by Tradition then by writing seeing Tradition depends on no other help but memory whereas Things committed to Paper are conveyed to Posterity and remaine by two Helps Memory and Writing If Tradition were the safest way to preserve Things why were the Scriptures written What is preserved of the doctrine of
substance with the Creed for so all Creeds and Confessions of Faith if true might be called the Apostles Creed nay the Scripture of the New Testament contains nothing else in Substance the Apostles Creed is that only which is delivered in this Forme and in these wordes which distinguish it from all other Creeds If any now among us who receive it as framed by the Apostles should even for explication or under any other pretence offer to alter the least word or tittle we should count it and that justly high Presumption and Sacriledge and should not esteem it so altered though containing nothing but Truth to be the Apostles Creed Answ The fore-cited places of Scripture evince thus much that a Forme containing the Heads of Religion was delivered not after but before the New Testament was written for else the New Testament could not have born witnesse of it Now the Church saith the Apostles Creed is that Forme for she hath delivered us none other nor entitled any other to the Apostles name in any age past therefore let the Objectours either produce another or subscribe to the Churches Testimony The like Argument may be urged touching any Book of Scripture As for Instance Antiquity tels us that S. Paul wrote an Epistle to the Romans the Church tels us that the Epistle we now have so entitleed is that Epistle and none other therefore if any man will doubt of or deny it let him ether shew another Epistle which S. Paul wrote to the Romans or accept this upon the Church's word As for what the Expositours say on the fore-alleaged Places of Scripture hath been already shewen Those Principles mentioned Heb. 6. 1 2. are some of them Practicall Heads of Christianity which were taught the Catechumeni together with the Creed and because Practicall Points not included in it the Creed being composed for a Summary of pure Doctrinals yet they all refer to the Tenth Article of the Creed namely to Remission of sinnes Repentance as the Antecedent or preparative Baptisme as the outward means and Imposition of Hands in Confirmation as the Complement or Perfection thereof As for other Summaries of Faith they cannot be either so truely or so properly called the Apostles Creed because they want the Attestation of the Church which never acknowledged them for such though otherwise perhaps in substance they agree with it as Paraphrases or parts thereof The New Testament containes many things besides the fundamentall Articles of Beleefe as smaller Doctrinall Points Evangelicall Rules of Practice matters of History Disputes Prophecies c. All extra Fidem besides the Creed the Forme and wordes whereof were delivered by the Apostles as well as the Heads and Substance of the Faith though some now doubt which they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in expresse wordes As for explicating or altering the Creed we may safely paraphrase or comment on it now though not alter the Text thereof in wordes or sense because it hath been delivered to us totidem verbis by a confest evident Tradition of above 1200 years as the Oppugners of its Authors are forced to yeeld Before it was thus setled there was more liberty of expression because diverse Churches somewhat varied the Forme by reason of succresent Heresis but now it hath triumphed over all and is long agoe setled in full possession of the Christian Faith Besides in all those former variations though the Forme was changed in some few Particulars yet the heads or Articles of Beleefe continued the same It was not therefore sufficient for any confession of Faith to gaine the Title of the Apostles Creed in that it contained nothing but Truth CAP. IV. Testimonies concerning the Creed and the composure thereof by the Apostles taken out of the Greeke Fathers who beare witnesse for the Easterne Churches Some objections against these Authorities partly answered partly prevented YOU have seene what light the Holy Scripture gives us concerning this Creed of the Apostles but this Truth will be farther cleered and confirmed by the concordant Testimonies of the Fathers and most of those the most ancient for Time as living neerest the age of the Apostles and the most venerable for Authority who therefore may best be credited in this matter and well speake for the rest Now in reciting their Testimonies when I produce some of them who in their writings set downe the Creed or Rule of Faith not agreeing totidem verbis expressely in every word and tittle with that which the Church now receives for the Apostles I shall desire my Reader to take notice of these three things 1. First that diverse of the Fathers writing against the Heretickes of their Times mentiond only or chiefly those Articles which were then cald in question by those against whom they wrote whence it is that they doe not alwaies set the Creed downe whole and entire which by the way may well be one Reason why the Article of Christs descent into Hell was omitted in many latter Creeds because never question'd by any of the Hereticks of those dayes The same reason induced the Nicene Fathers to proceed no farther in their Creed than this Article in Spiritum Sanctum And I believe in the Holy Ghost although the old Creed was larger as will appeare more fully in what I shall produce hereafter namely because the Arian controversy required no more 2. Secondly That the Fathers maine care in setting down this Rule of faith was to keep themselves to the same Heads or Articles of the Creed giving themselves somtimes liberty to vary words phrases whence it is that though they alwayes set downe the Creed wheresoever they mention it as the only necessary unchangeable Rule of faith the immoveable Basis of Christianity the distinctive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or assured marke of a true orthodoxe Christian contradistinguishing him to Pagans Jewes and Hereticks yet somtimes as learned Discoursers they enlarge the parts of the Creed by way of Paraphrase otherwhiles as short Comprisers thereof they contract the sum of it into fewer words according as they saw cause or had occasion offered So Tertullian though he lay downe this for a ground that Regula fidei una omninò est sola immobilis irreformabilis The Rule of faith is only one soley immoveable and umchangeable De Virg. vel chap. 1. Yet whereas he thrise rehearseth it in three severall Tracts he never useth the same words exactly but varyeth his expression now extending now contracting it at pleasure Besides there is an other reason why some of the Creeds end with the Article of the Holy Ghost viz because the four following Articles are virtually included in it which appeares by S. Chrysostomes first Homily on the Creed as shall be shewen by and by As for us of this Age we are not unjustly abridged the like liberty in varying of words or phrases First because these are suspected times wherein the very Grounds of Faith are by many very doubtfully held and by
he that leaving off superfluous questions and unhandsome contentions about words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you would be contented with those Doctrines which have bene delivered by word of mouth from the Holy Apostles and the Lord himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrines not writen but spoken spoken by the Saints and holy Apostles by the Direction inspiration of the Lord he the Author they the instruments Doctrines opposed to curious or superfluous questions and strifes about words that is Doctrines of moment or fundamentall points such as the Creed conteines And this he dilivers more plainly in the closing up of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Beware of false Prophets and withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And not after the Tradition which they received of us let us exactly and orderly walke according to the Rule of the Saints as being built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ our Lord being the head-corner-stone in or by whom the whole building fitly joyned together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord. This Tradition this exact Rule this Foundation of the Apostles to what can it be applyed more congruously than unto the Creed of the Apostles the substance whereof he sets downe before 6. Gregory Nyssen Brother to the Great S. Basil explaines the Heads of the Creed in that Oration of his which is entituled Catachetica Oratio magna 7. Cyril Patriarch of Jerusalem sets downe the whole Creed in distinct Articles and explaines it at large in severall Catecheticall Orations as whose office it was to instruct all his Auditors not to oppose one Heretick which as I said caused some of the. Fathers to set downe the Creed more imperfectly leaving out those Articles which were not impugned Cyrils Creed is this which followes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven earth of all things visible invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God begotten of his Father before all worlds incarnate and made man crucifyed and buried he rose againe from the Dead the third Day he ascended into the Heavens and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and shall come to judge the quick and the dead And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Comforter who spake by the Prophets one holy Catholick Church one Baptisme of Repentance for the remission of sinnes the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting Any one at the first sight may perceive that this is the same with that which we now call the Apostles Creed in the full sense and substance of it only a little altered in some few words and explayned in two or three Articles by some Additionall Particles This was the confession of Faith received in the Church of Ierusalem the mother Church of the Christian World where this Cyril was Catechist and afterward Patriarch Ruffinus cals it Symbolum Orientale the Creed of the Easterne Church and compares it in his Exposition with the Romane and Aquileian But of this more hereafter 8. Chrysostome hath wrote two Homelies upon the Creed in the former whereof he sets the Creed downe in this forme which I am to give you out of the Latine Edition of Erasmus having not as yet met with the Greeke Originall although sought for both in Sr H. Saviles Edition and that of Fronto ducaeus Credo in Deū Patrem Omnipotentem in unicum Filium ejus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum iste natus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Mariâ Virgine crucifixus est sub Pontio Pilato sepultus est postquam mortuus tertia die a mortuis resurrexit sedet ad dextram Patris inde venturus est judicare vivos mortuos credo in Spiritum sanctum Iste spiritus perducet ad sanctam Ecclesiam ipsa est quae dimittit peccata promittit carnis resurrectionem promittit vitam aeternam that is I believe in God the Father Almighty and in his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ conceived by the holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary crucifyed under Pontius Pilate dead and buried the third Day he rose againe from the dead he sitteth at the right hand of the Father from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I believe in the holy Ghost He bringeth us to the holy Church shee it is which forgiveth sinnes promiseth the resurrection of the Body promiseth Life Everlasting The consonancy of this Creed to that of the Apostles is sufficiently manifest without farther Descant To these Testimonies I shall crave leave to adde that Confession of Faith which the Arch-heretick Arius with his companion Euzoius presented to the Emperour Constantine in writing who being perswaded by a certaine Presbyter whom his Sister Constantia at her death had commended to him sent for Arius to Constantinople after he had beene banished from Alexandria for not subscribing to the Nicene councill whither being come with Euzoius the Emperour asked him whether or no he assented to the Nicen Creed Arius feigning that he did was straitwaise commanded by him to put his Beleefe in writing which he did in this Forme in the name of himselfe and Euzoius we find it thus recorded by Socrates in his Ecclesiasticall History lib. 1. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. We believe in one God the Father Almighty and in the Lord Jesus Christ his Sonne begotten of him before all worlds God the word by whom all things were made both which are in Heaven and which are one Earth who came downe and was incarnate and Suffered and Rose againe and ascended into the Heavens shall come againe to judge the Quick and Dead And in the Holy Ghost the Resurrection of the Body the life of the world to come and the Kingdome of Heaven and one Catholick Church of God spred over the whole world This Confession of Faith as I conceive by the Forme was the Ancient Creed of the Church of Alexandria wherof this Arius was Presbyter deposited therein by its first Bishop S. Marke who received it from the mouths of the Apostles and more particularly from St Peter who sent him thither for it was common with the Hereticks to shelter themselves under the generall Tearmes of the Apostles Creed which admitted of diverse constructions and so lay the more open to be abused and perverted by their unsound Glosses thus did Photinus aworse than Arius some years after thus doe his Disciples the Socinians at this Day Only Arius may be thought to have somewhat enlarged this Apostolicall Creed in the second Article touching the Divinity of our Saviour the better to counterfeit his assent to what the Nicene Fathers had declared in that Point and decreed to be held From these Testimonies of the Greeke Fathers who can best witnesse the Faith of the Easterne Churches we may raise these observations but
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
and convince the perversnesse of Hereticks For we have received by Tradition that after the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour to the Father when his Disciples being inspired with fiery tongues by the holy Ghost comming on them spake all manner of languages they being to depart each from other and goe unto all Nations to preach the Word of God decreed first by common Consent to frame a Rule or Prescript to themselves of their after-preaching least departing thus a sunder they might Preach any thing Diverse or differently sounding to those who were invited unto the Faith of Christ All of them therefore being gathered together and filled with the holy Ghost Collected into one a short Summary of their Preaching every one contributing what he thought meet and this they appointed to be given as a Rule unto Beleevers The same Father in his 115th Sermon De Tempore sets downe distinctly all the Articles of the Creed and distributes them in severall according to the number of the Twelve Apostles to each of them one Then in his little Booke De fide Symbolo he also sets downe all the Articles of the Apostles Creed withall he tells us lib 1. Retract cap. 17. Concerning this small Tract that he wrote it as an exposition of the Creed which he was commanded to make before a full Councill of African Bishops Assembled at Hippo Regia when he was yet but Presbyter Ut tamen non fiat illa verborum contentio quae tenenda memoriter competentibus traditur Yet not tying himselfe to that forme of words which is delivered unto the competentes to be got without booke Whence we may observe 1. That there was a certaine Forme of Beleefe delivered to the Competentes or Petitioners of Baptisme which they were to rehearse Memoriter when they came to be Partakars of that Sacrament 2. That St Austin had liberty to vary from this when he made the said exposition namely to vary from it not in the matter but in the manner of expression as other Doctours of the Church before him had done in their more Learned Tracts which they published to the world as we have seene in some former examples Lastly In his Enchiridion to Laurentius cap. 7. he hath these words Ecce tibi est Symbolum Dominica Oratio quid brevius auditur aut Legitur Behold thou hast the Creed and the Lords prayer canst thou heare or Read any thing more breife Where Hearing refers to the Creed as being an Orall Tradition and Reading to the Lords prayer as being written in the Gospell A little after he addes Quomodò invocabunt in quem non crediderunt Propter hoc Symbolum How shall they call on him on whom they have not believed For this cause the Creed was Framed Where he makes Prayer necessarily to depend on the Creed according to that of the Apostle Rom. 10. 14 Therefore according to St Austin the Creed was as necessary from the Begining of Christianity as the Lords Prayer and the Apostles Creed it is which he there explaines 7. Maximus Bishop of Turin in his Homily entituled De Traditione Symboli having spoken before of the word Shiboleth where by the Ephraimites were discouered at the Fourds of Jordan he thus applies it to the Creed Quod Beati Apostoli ut ego reor exemplum sequentes Ecclesiae Dei quam adversus malitiam Diabolici furoris armabant mysterium Symboli tradiderunt ut quia sub uno Christi nomine Credentium erat futura Diversitas signaculum Symboli inter fideles Persidosque secerneret alienus a Fide atque hostis apareret Ecclesiae aut tanquam Baptizatus nescisset aut tanquam Haereticus corrupisset That is Which Patterne saith he as I suppose the Blessed Apostles setting before their Eyes delivered unto the Church of God the mystery of the Creed thereby arming it against the malice of the Divels fury that because under the same name of Christ there would be as they foresaw no small diversity of Professours the Creed as a Marke or Seale should distinguish betwene the true Beleevers and mis-beleevers and he might appeare an Alien from the Faith and an enimy to the Church who pretending to be Baptized was found ignorant thereof or by his Heresy had corrupted it 8. Petrus surnamed Crysologus Bishop of Ravenna hath left behind him sixe Homilies one the Apostles Creed viz. From his 56th Sermon to the 63. 9. Leo the Great Bishop of Rome in his eleventh Sermon of the Passion hath these words Hac Fidei Regula quam in ipso exordio Symboli per Authoritatem Apostolicae Institutionis accepimus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum quem Filium Dei patris Omnipotentis unicum dicimus eundem quoque de Spiritu Sancto natum ex Maria Virgine confitemur That is By this Rule of Faith which in the Begining of the Creed we have received by the Authority of an Apostolik Institution we confesse the same Jesus Christ our Lord whom we call the only Sonne of God the Father Almighty to be also borne of the Virgin Mary by the Power of the holy Ghost The same Leo in his thirteenth Epistle written to the Emperesse Pulchcria speakes more fully and distinctly of the Creed Ipsius Catholici Symboli brevis perfecta confessio duodecim Apostolorum totidem est signata Sententiis That is That briefe and perfect confession of Faith in the Catholick Creed is distinctly marked forth with twelve Sentences equall to the number of the Apostles 10. Cassianus S. Chrysostomes Deacon and afterwards Presbyter of Marceilles in France at the command of Leo the great wrote seven Bookes De Incarnatione Domini against Nestorius as he himself tels us in his Preface in the sixt whereof he hath these words touching the composure of the Creed Quod Graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur Latine Collatio nominatur Collatio autem ideo quia in unum ab Apostolis Domini totius Catholicae legis fide quiquid per universum Divinorum voluminū Corpus immensa funditur copia totum in Symboli colligitur Brevitate perfecta Hoc est breviatum verbum quod fecit Dominus Fidem sc duplicis Testamenti sui in pauca colligens sed sensum omnium Scripturarum in breuia concludens sua de suis condens vim totius legis compendiocissimâ brevitate perficiens consulens sc in hoc ut piissimus Pater vel negligentiae quorundam filiorum suorum vel imperitiae ut non laboraret utique quamvis simplex imperita mens capere quod possit facile etiam memoria contineri vides ergo in Symbolo authoritatē Dei esse verbum enim breviatum faciet Dominus super terram sed Hominum fortasse quaeris ne id quidem deest per Hominem enim id Deus fecit sicut enim immensam illam Scripturarum sacrarum Copiam qer Patriarchas Prophetas maxime suos condidit ita Symbolum per Apostolos suos Sacerdotesque constituit Nihil ergo
Emes tels us Hom. 1. in Symb. which appellation agrees to those who lived in latter Times So Canones Apostolorum are called by the Apostles Names though not compiled by them but by Clemens as the Title of those Canons witneseth Yea both Greeke and Latine Fathers have communicated the name Apostle to others to any Bishop the Church of Rome keepe the old stile still The Apostolick See The Apostolick Bulles Our Saxon Predecessours gave the Bishop of Rome the Title of Apostle and Apostolicall Pope Bed hist lib. 2. c. 2 11. Austin the Monke is called Anglorum Apostolus Philip the Deacon is called an Apostle by Tertullian and Epaphroditus by St Paul Phil. 2. 25. So many others besides the Twelve whom St Chrysostome by way of Distinction calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostles by way of Eminency were called Apostles who might give name to the Creed as well as the Twelve therefore it is no concluding or necessary Argument It is called the Apostle Creeds Ergo it was made by the Twelve Then for the Title Symbolum that doth not signify such a Collation or Feast in Common but rhe word Symbola and therefore cannot imply or allude to any such composing of the Creed by the joynt concurrence of the Apostles Besides Cajetan ad 2am 2ae qu. 1. art 8. Tels us that Aquinas thinking fit to number the Articles ex parte rei creditae with relation to the matter not the makers of the Creed for this cause passed by that famous distribution of them according to the number of the Apostles because it is accidental to the Articles of Faith whether they be gathered by many or by one as that of Athanasius Answ Good Authors indeed assigne that for the reason and etymology of the Apostolick Symbole that it was an Apostolicall Collation or Collection of the Fundamentall Points of Beliefe by the twelve Apostoles yet not as the principall argument but by way of Appendix and Congruity unto the forementioned Tradition But this distinction saith the objectour or Collation of severall Articles might be made by Apostolick Men and their Disciples out of the holy Scripture and from thence obtaine the name of the Apostolick Symbole But it might be so and it was so are two things If it might be so it might be otherwise sure this private groundles conjecture may well give place to the constant assertion of so many Ancient and learned Authors who affirme the Apostles to have been the Composers of the Creed and give that for the reason of the name which it beares As for the Testimony of Eusebius Hom. 1. in Symb. who is there produced to say that the Creed was written not by the Apostles but by the Fathers of the Churches he hath no such exclusive words as non ab Apostolis quidem but saith that the Fathers of the Churches whom a litle after he calls Magistri the Masters of the sayd Churches Composed the Creed Now who be these but the Apostles exprest by way of Periphrasis for they and they only may properly be called the Fathers or Masters not of this or that Church in particular but of all the Churches in the World their Comission Being generall Goe and Teach all Nations Math. 29. 19. Whereas others were limited to this or that Church as the Apostles pleased to dispose of them and were the Sonnes or Disciples of the Apostles as St Paul termes Timothy and Titus in his Epistles which he wrote unto them 1 Tim. 1. 2. Tit. 1. 4. Hence also it is that St Paul tels his Corinthians 1 Cor. 4. 15. Though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have Begotten you through the Gospell And St James in his Epistle to the dispersed Jewes secretly taxing the proud-conceited Rabbins who affected the highest seats in the Synagogues the office of teaching their Brethren My Brethren saith he Be not many Masters Jam. 3. 1. This conjecture therefore deserves as litle faith as it hath foundation that is none at all for the Fathers constantly say it was called The Apostles Creed because Framed by and derived to the Christian Church from the Apostles of Christ and this may justly sway us in this Case for the Title prefixt doth not only beare this construction but more directly points out and inclines us to this meaning Titles being therefore given that they may designe the Authors or Composers of that worke unto which they are prefixt and the Fathers living in the first Ages should best know the Tradition the Title then of the Apostles Creed is not nakedly produced as a convincing Argument but as backt and seconded with the Attestation of Antiquity As for the contrary Instance of the Canons of the Apostles although they beare the name of Clemens in the Inscription who first gatherd them into one Body yet they may well challenge the Apostles for the Authors who first instituted and put them in Practise Then as to the promiscuous use of the name Apostle and Apostolick and the applying of them to the Ancient Bishops it will not hurt at all or prejudice the Title of the Creed Because the Fathers entitle it to the Apostles so cal'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Eminency some of them expresly naming the Twelve as Ambrose Ruffine and Augustine others decyphering them by such circumstances as can agree to none other than The Apostles who left the Srciptures to us so Irenaeus Such Apostles who received this Rule from Christ their Master at the very begining of the Gospell and before the rise of any Heresy so Tertullian Such who left us the Faith per successionis Ordinem by a continued line of Episcopall successours so Origen And all the rest name the Apostles indefinitly not limited to a particular See charge or place by any determining circomstance now it is a knowne Rule in Logick concerning ambiguons Termes Analogum per se positum stat pro famosiori Analogato Neither indeed do the instances alleadged shew that the Name was commonly given to every Bishop at large but either to some Episcopall See which the Apostles had personally founded as to that of Rome founded by Peter and Paul or to some speciall Person who planted a New Church or converted a whole Nation to Christianity which is a worke properly Apostolicall as to Epaphroditus of Collosse and Augustin of our Saxon nation in his sense did our Saxō Kings probably give the Title of Apostolick to the Bishop of Rome as well as for the former reason because Gregory the Great sent over Augustine hither with certaine coadjutors to convert our Ancestours from Paganisme The like may be said in proportion of Philip the Deacon who was sent by the holy Ghost with a speciall Commission to convert the Eunuch of Queene Candace and by his meanes the whole Nation of Ethiopia as Church-story tels us But to the criticall quarrell against the word Symbolum that not it but Symbola
Catholick a Tradition doth not a litle confirme me in my Beliefe that the Apostles were the Authors of the Creed First Ruffinus in that place shewes no doubt at all of the Authors as appears by the fore-cited Relation but having before recited the Tradition of his Ancestors and himself accordingly affirmed the Apostles to have been the Authors in these words Symbolum fecerunt Apostoli in his Sermonibus in unum conferendo quod unusquisque sensit Decessuri ad predicandum istud unanimitatis fidei suae Indicium Apostoli posuere Sure those following words qui Symbolum tradiderunt must needs relate to the Apostles as the antecedent Secondly that severall Authors have mentioned this Tradition before the yeere 400 as well as after and those not only of the Westerne but of the Easterne Church I appeale to the fore-cited Testimonies of the Fathers among whom Origen Marcellus of Ancyra and Cyril of Jerusalem were of the Greeke Church and before the yeare 400 whereof the two latter set the Creed downe and Origen tells us that the Apostles delivered it Tertullian and Ambrose were of the Lattine or Westerne Church whereof the former sets it downe and entitles it to the Apostles and the latter names the Twelve Apostles for the Authors citing for proofe both of the Creed and its Composers a perpetuall inviolate Tradition of the Church of Rome now St Amb. flourished before the end of the fourth Century Tertullian long before As for the silencing of the Apostles Creed since the Nicene Councell in the Easterne Church 't is cleere that it was extant amongst them since the Councell for Marcellus sets it downe and Chrysostome explaines it but when the Constantinopolitan Creed was framed it was by degrees it seemes disused because therein included Then as to the Ethiopian Creed it is the very same with the Nicene or Constantinopolitan and communicated from the Greeke Church by the neighbouring Patriarch of Alexandria as in all likelihood we may suppose to that more Southerne People Lastly To the Testimony cited out of the 115. Serm. de Temp. The objector confesseth that the Creed was first rehearsed entire and then explained only he questions the assignation of the severall Articles to distinct Apostles as a spurious piece inserted out of the Margine into the Body of the Sermon the rest he acknowledgeth for genuine but this passage I stand not much upon whether it were so or otherwise for notwithstanding this supposall the Creed may well be styled a Symbole or Collation because agreed on in common by the Apostles they reducing the Number of the Articles to Twelve because themselves were Twelve the Founders or Foundation of the Christian Faith as St Paul cals them Eph. 2. 20. St Jo. Re. 21. 14. Reason 2d. In the Primitive Church the Catechumeni were men instructed in the first Rudiments of Christianity chiefely in the time of Lent Then on Palme-sunday they were called Competentes that is joynt Petitioners of Baptisme and had the whole perfection of the Faith that is the whole Body of the Creed expounded unto them because Easter the assigned Time of their Baptisme then approached This is testified by S. Ambrose Epist 35. lih 5. Sequenti die erat autem Dominica post lectiones atque Tractatum dimissis Catechumenis Symbolum aliquibus competentibus in Baptisteriis tradebam Basilicae That is The next day being the Lords day after the Reading of the Scriptures and the Sermon having dismissed the Catechumeni I delivered the Creed to certain Competentes in that part of the Church which is assigned for Baptisme And by Isidore of Sevil lib. 1. De Eccles Offic cap. 27. De Domin Palm Hac autem die Symbolum Competentibus traditur propter confinem Dominicae Paschae solemnitatem ut quia jam ad Dei gratiam percipiendam festinant fidem quam confiteantur agnoscant That is On this day on Palmesunday the Creed is delivered to the Competentes by reason of the approaching solemnity of Easter that so they may more fully understand and embrace that Faith which they professe their Baptisme now hastening on And wee have already in part demonstrated the same out of the forecited Fathers particularly out of their Homilies on the Creed which they commonly made on Palmesunday to the Competentes who were now ready to be baptized But now when Easter came the solemne time of Baptisme as Pentecost also was before they were admitted to it they made an open confession of their Faith as our Infants now doe in the Person of their Godfathers I aske then what confession of Faith was this which they thus publiquely pronounced at Baptisme No man is so absurd to think that every one was left to his owne discretion to frame it as he pleased but that the Church had a certaine prescribed forme of words or Rule of Beliefe which the Competentes did openly rehearse the same forme no doubt which had been explained unto them on the foregoing Palmesunday now this was no other then the Apostles Creed as appears both by those Homilies of the Fathers upon it which were usually made to the Competentes on Palmesunday as preparatives to their Baptisme as also because we find no other Confession of Faith publiquely received in the Church for above 300 years after the Birth of our Saviour besides this of the Apostles To this agree the words of Saint Jerome cont Lucifer Solenne est in lavacro post Trinitatis confessionem interrogare Credis in sanctam Ecclesiam credis remissionem peccatorum That is It is the custome at Baptisme after confession of the Trinity to aske Believest thou the Holy Church believest thou the Remission of sinnes And long before him S. Cyprian Epist 70. ad Janu ar c. Ipsa interrogatio quae fit in baptismo testis est veritatis nam cum dicimus credis in vitam aeternam remissionem peccatorum per sanctam Ecclesiam Intelligimus remissionem peccatorum non nisi in Ecclesiâ dari That is The very questioning in Baptisme witnesseth the Truth for when we say believest thou the life everlasting and remission of sinnes by the holy Church We conceive that remission of sinnes is not given but in the Church If any one desire to have this Custome of rehearsing the Creed at Baptisme brought higher yet up to the Age of the Apostles that so we may know positively when this forme of Profession began and the rather because when the Apostles baptized 3000 in one day and presently after S. Peters Sermon either no forme was then used or it was a very short one and quickly learned I Answer That the custome of making Homilies on the Creed by the Catechists and Bishops of old for the better instruction of those who were to be Baptized shews that this confession was very anciently practised and Russinus who himselfe was ancient tells us of many Illustres Tractatores many famous expounders of the Creed in this kind before his Time why then
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
succeeding Creeds which the whole Church hath for many Ages imbraced they were Framed in generall Councels or confirmed by Generall Practise Now the Catholick Church which received the Creed from the Apostles and preserved â—t as an inviolable Depositum may justly be presumed best to know the meaning of it the Common Mother of Christians can best informe us which is the true sence of the Common Faith and hath sufficienâ— authority to impose it upon Her Children Reas 4. Those Fathers who wrote since the Nicene Councell set downe and explaine that Creed which beareth the Apostles name not that which was framed in the Councell of Nice as appeares by the fore-cited Testimonies Now this they would not nor could have done if the Nicene Creed had been the first The first Father whom we find to meddle with or handle the Nicene Creed is St Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria who flourished an whole Century after the making of it Doth not this plainly shew that the Church had still the prime if not the sole respect to that Symbole or Rule of Faith which the Apostles left her as the maine Basis on which the Faith of her Children was built the Root whereout other Creeds as so many Branches sprung the Fathers who since the celebration of that Councell have explained and commented on the Apostles Creed I have already mentioned viz. Chrysostome Augustine Chrysologus Venantius Eusebius c. Reason 5th It is a received Rule which S. Augustine laies downe lib. 4. De Baptismo cont Donat. cap. 24. Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi authoritate Apostolicâ traditum rectissimè creditur That is That which the universall Church holdeth and hath alwaies retained not being ordained by a Councell is most justly believed to have been derived unto us by the Authority of the Apostles And this rule is grounded upon good Reason besides the Authority of the deliverer for a generall effect must have as generall a cause they must be both of the same latitude and extent now there is no Generall cause imagineable of a publiquely received Doctrine Goverment Ceremony or Discipline in the Catholicke Church such especially as is derived to it from hand to hand time out of mind but the Authority of a Generall Councell which is the Church Representative or the concordant preaching of the Apostles who first planted Christianity in the Churches of the whole world So then to apply this Rule unto our present purpose That the whole Church holds the Apostles Creed experience demonstrates that it hath been alwayes reteined in the Church the Testimonies of the fore-aleadged Fathers shew and that it was not Framed in any Genenerall Councell sufficienty appears both by the copies of those Creeds which were framed in them found varying from that of the Apostles as also by the writing of those Fathers who lived before the first General Councel held at Nice wherein they make mention of a Rule of Faith derived downe to them from the Apostles which some of them also set downe as Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Reason 6th Before the Nicene Creed was framed both the Easterne and Westerne Churches had an Ancient Symbole or Creede Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 6. Which could be no other than that of the Apostles since no other is assigned or mentioned by any good Author First That the Westerne or Romane Church had such an Ancient Symble appeares 1. By the words of Vigilius Byshop of Rome lib. 4. De Eutiche Roma antequam Nicena Synodus conveniret a temporibus Apostolorum usque all nunc ita fidelibus Symbolum tradidit viz. in Jesum Christum Filium ejus Dominum nostrum leaving out the Particle Vnicum That is The Church of Rome even before the Nicene Councell from the very Apostles times till this present in these termes delivered the Creed unto Believers And in Jesus Christ his Sonne our Lord leaving out the Particle Only 2. By Ruffinus in his Tract on the Creed who compares the Aquilean Creed with the Romane and withall tells us that the Creed was believed so ancient in his time that it was then held for an Apostolicall Tradition Now this Ruffinus was a man of note in the Church nine yeares before the first Councell of Constantinople viz. in the yeare 372. when he went with Melama from Rome to Alexandria about which time also S. Ierome wrote letters to him namely his Epist 5. 41. Secondly that the Easterne Churches had an ancient Creed too before the Nicene Councell appears by the same Ruffinus who compares the Aquilean Creed with that of the East as well as with the Romane The same appears by Cyril of Ierusalem who explaines it at large in his Catecheses and this Creed of his explaining we shall find much consonant to that which we now call the Apostolicall only cutting off some few exegeticall Particles which were added to fore-arme his Auditors and other orthodox Christians against succrescent Heresies to which Creed of his he adjoynes also some practicall Grounds for the more compleat instruction and Preparation of them against the time of Baptisme This Cyril was first Catechist then Patriarch of Ierusalem and sate afterwards in the first Councell held at Constantinople where the Easterne Bishops were only present and composed a Creed almost in the same termes with this of Cyril He composed these Catecheses in his youth about the yeare 350 and died in the yeare 386 five years after the celebration of that Councell as the learned Vossius demonstrates out of Leo and S. Jerome compared with a passage in his sixt Catechesis Now as the Fathers of the first Councell at Constantinople laboured not to frame a new Creed but were contented to enlarge the Article concerning the Holy Ghost against Macedonius who perverted it so we may justly suppose that the Nicene Fathers retained the words of that Creed which had been of old received in the East least they might otherwise seeme to have framed a new Faith amplifying only the Article concerning the Divinity of our Saviour which was then called in question by Arius that so it might appeare to the World quaedam tantummodo explicatius dici as the same Vossius rightly conceives Cut off therefore from the Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creed or from that of Cyril which much symbolizeth with it the Additionals unto those two Articles and you have the whole Creed of the Apostles for the Communion of Saints is not a distinct Article but a part or Paraphrase of what goes before Saints being implyed in in Holy and Communion in Church or Congregation Ecclesia which is an Assembly of selected People and Christs descent into Hell is presupposed to the Article of his Resurrection Therefore to think that Cyril in his old Age or Iohn the Patriarch his Successor added all that to the Jerosolymitan Creed which followes the Articles of the Holy Ghost is nothing probable because Cyril doth not barely
set downe the Articles but Catechetically explaine them also together with the rest which precede and there hath been no reason ever yet assigned to make us doubt of the composing of these Catecheses by the same man and at the same Time when he was Catechist which was in his youthfull Age seeing they all alike relish of the same juvenile extemporary stile the consideration whereof hath made some to doubt whether any of them were Cyril's or no because they seemed not elaborate enough for so grave a Patriarch though they seeme indeed to have beene set forth by his Successor Iohn and thence became entitled unto him by some latter unwary Transcriber which may serve to satisfy that objection taken out of Simlerus who in his Index of those Bookes which the City of Auspurgh bought of Antony Eparch of Coreyra reckoneth Joannis Jerosol Catech. Illuminat duâ—deviginti Mystagogicus quinque If any yet desire to have this more fully and clearly demonstrated viz. That the Easterne Churches had an Ancient Forme of Beliefe derived to them from the Apostles and whereto they profest to adde nothing in their following confessions because as it is more obscure so it is more oppugned they may please to consult these following Testimonies 1. Epiphanius in his Booke called Anchoratus having set downe the Nicene Creed as we now have it at large adjoynes these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Faith saith he was delivered by the holy Apostles and in the Church the Holy City by all the holy Bishops together above 310 in number The same Creed then was delivered by both by the Apostles as the Primitive Authors by the Nicene Fathers as the Expositors The Nicene Creed thus at full set downe by Epiphanius was written seaven years before the first Councell of Constantinople which first added all after the Article of the Holy Ghost unto that forme which the Nicene Fathers had delivered although they were not the first framers of those additionall Articles and having thus compleated the Creed by borrowing the remaining Articles from that of the Apostles confirmed the entire forme by their Synodicall Authority and so commended yea prescribed the whole to the Catholick Church 2. The succeeding Councells in the Easterne Church expressely tell us that they and their Predecessors were neither Authors of any new Faith nor Adders to it but only Establishers and Exposirors of the old The first Councell of Constantinople which was the second Generall calls the Nicene Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most ancient although that Synod was celebrated but 56 years before the reason therefore of this Title is that they looked upon that Creed not as first composed by the Bishops of the Nicene Synod but as derived and declared out of a Creed ab ultima antiquitate in Ecclesiâ recepto received in the Church from all Antiquity as the Reverend and Learned Primate of Armagh hath rightly exprest it They also decreed to retaine it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most agreeable to the Sacrament of Baptisme Theod. lib. 5. hist cap. 9. The Bishops Assembled at Tyre Anno 518. professe to embrace the Nicene Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expounded not made by that Synod Act. Concil 5. Constant sub Mennâ And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is That holy Creed whereinto we were all Baptized the Nicene Synod with the assistance of the Holy Ghost hath publickly declared that of Constantinople hath ratified that of Ephesus hath confirmed and in like manner the Great holy Synod of Chalcedon hath sealed The Councell of Chalcedon which was the fourth Generall styles the Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doctrine unshaken or unmoved from the first Preaching of the Gospell and withall tells us that the Councells of Nice and Constantinople expounded the Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not adding ought as if the faith of their Predecessors had been deficient but declaring their sense by Scripture Testimonies Evagr. lib. 2. cap. 4. To this agrees also that of the Emperour Iustinian writing to Epiphanius Patriarch of Constantinople we keepe saith he that decree of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Symbole which was explained by the 118 Fathers in the Councell of Nice which also the 150 Fathers in the first Councell of Constantinople farther declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as though the ancient faith were defective but because the enemies of the Truth partly rejected the Divinity of the Holy Ghost partly denied the Incarnation of God the Word therefore the said Fathers by Testimonies out of Scripture explained this Doctrine more at large Thus he 7. leg Cord. De Summâ Trinitate Fide Catholicâ 3. To give you the Testimony of the Westerne Church for confirmation of the same Truth The Liturgy called Ordo Romanus a Book of known Authority and Antiquity in the Preface to the Nicene Creed hath these words directed to the Persons who were to pronounce it before their Baptisme Audite suscipientes Evangelici Symboli Sacramentum à Domino inspiratum ab Apostolis institutum cujus pauca quidem verba sunt sed magna mysteria In which words the Nicene Creed is called The Evangelicall Symbole inspired by Christ and ordained by his Apostles And another old Latine Liturgy in use about the yeare 700 hath these words of the same Creed Finito Symbolo Apostolorum dicat Sacerdos Dominus vobiscum Where it is also expressely called The Creed of the Apostles that is the same explained and enlarged For these Testimonies I am indebted to the said R. and Learned Bishop Now for a close to these Authorities and Arguments I shall subjoyne the testimony of Franc. Quaresimus of the Order of Minors a Person of good note in the Romish Church as who was made by the Pope his President and Apostolick Commissary in the Holy Land during which office of his he took incredible paines in searching out the Antiquities of Palestine now this Author in his Book called Elucidatio Terrae Sanctae Tom. 2. lib. 4. Perear 9. cap. 1. Brings two opinions concerning the Place wherein the Apostles composed the Creed The first that of Adrichomius who thinkes it probable that the place was Caenaculum Sion a Place famous for many other sacred Actions as wherein our Blessed Saviour celebrated his last Supper and instituted the most holy Eucharist wherein the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles at Pentecost and wherein they held that famous Councell about the abrogating of the Ceremoniall Law Act. 15. consonantly to which Tradition he brings that saying of the Evangelicall Prophet Out of Syon shall goe forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa 2. 3. The second that of Frier Anselme and others that the place where the Apostles framed the Creed was on Mount Olivet three Bow-shootes from the place where Christ is said to have wept over Jerusalem for which he gives this reason Quia est communis in partibus istis Traditio perpetuis
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.
Luke in the Acts was not altogether so necessary it being enough that it was otherwise testified that lastly S. Luke probably omitted it because it was a thing so vulgarly knowen in the Christian Church the Apostles delivering it to be kept and used wheresoever they Preached Secondly though S. Luke make no expresse mention of this Creed of the Apostles yet S. Paul in diverse of his Epistles not obscurely alludes unto it under severall Formes Phrases of Speech as hath bin shewen at large before so also doth S. Jude v. 3. Thirdly S. Luke sets downe the Apostles Decree concerning the ceremoniall Law because it was the Result of a Generall Councell and that Councell occasiond by a great Dissention in the Church of Antioch which sent to the Apostles about the Resolution of this question Now matters of dissention are the chiefe Theme of Histories and that Councell with the Proceedings and Formes thereof is set downe on purpose as a patterne to all succeeding Ages As for the Creed or Canon of Faith there was no such occasion for the mentioning of it seeing no Cavill then arose about it nor any generall Councell concurred to the Composure of it but only a private meeting of the Apostles Ob. 2d. Not one of the Ancient Fathers who lived within the three first Centuries spake of any such thing in any of their writings and yet they should best know it whose Times were nearest unto the Apostles Then of so many Church-historians who studiously gathered together the confessions of Synods and Anti-Synods not one makes mention of this though a matter of the greatest consequence as being the Rule of Faith and mother of all following Confessions I Answer First That the Ancient Fathers who lived within the three first Centuries make mentiō of the Creed and the Composure thereof by the Apostles I appeale to the former Testimonies cited out of Irenaeus Tertutullian and Origen who all lived within two hundred yeers after our Saviours Assension Secondly Though we have not any Comments extant on the Creed written by the Fathers of the three first Centuries Origen excepted who largely expounds it in his Bookes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it is more than probable that more of them expounded it paraphrastically First because Ruffinus who lived in the next Age in the Preface to his Exposition of the Creed tels us of those before him comperi saith he nonnullos illustrium Tractatorum aliqua de his pie breviter edidisse That some famous Authors had wrote piously and briefly on this Subject And a litle after Tentabimus quae omissa videntur a prioribus ad implere That he would endevour to supply what had been omitted by former Writers Secondly because it was the custome of the Ancient Bishops to expound the Creed unto Catechumeni when they came to Baptisme at those two solemne times of the year Easter Pentecost as appears by those Homilies or Catecheticall Sermons now extant of Cyril Chrysostome Austin Chrysollogus and others many more doubtles there were framed by former Bishops which either were never committed to paper or being then writen are now lost 3ly As to the silence of Ecclesiastical Historians touching this subject a little observation will informe us that nouell strange singular Passages are the usuall Arguments of their Pens not things Publick knowne and received such as the Creed is was common then in every Novices mouth So the Romane Historians set not downe their lawes customes court-proceedings as things vulgarly known and of daily practice amongst them the omission whereof rendring their Histories obscure to strangers they are set downe distinctly by Dionysius Halycarnasseus 'T is sufficient that severall Fathers in most Ages occasionally make mention of it when they had to deale with Hereticks who denied or perverted it But that Ancient Church-Historians mention the severall Confessions of Faith which were framed in severall Synods and Anti-Synods as Socrates and others in the businesse of the Arian faction hath this double Reason That they were New and contrary to each other whereas the Apostles Creed was an Old known Tradition and received verbo-tenùs by the Arians as well as the Catholicks whence it was that to unmaske their false Glosses the Catholicks were faine to adde by way of explication unto the second Article of the Creed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to cleare the true meaning thereof and distinguish themselves from the corrupters of the Faith Ob. 3d The very Language of the Creed convinceth it to be yonger than the Age of the Apostles for the word Catholick was not knowen in their Time as witnesseth Pacianus in his Epistle to Sympronianus It is likly it was added in after Ages to distinguish the Vniversall Church spred through out the whole world from the Canventicles of Hereticks and Schismaticks suth as the Novatians and Donastists for if it be said this word was added to distinguish the Christian Church from the Jewish Synogogues circumscribed within the limits of the land of Canaan 't is an improbable Reason because in the Apostles Age there were as many if not more Jewes out Palastine than in it as apeares by the History of the Acts. I Answer 1. Some one word might possibly be added in succeeding Times by way of explication to distinguish the True Church from the Conventicles of Hereticks and yet not prejudice the Antiquity of the whole So St Austin seemes to include it in the Epethete Holy for when he comes to this Article hee addes by way of explication to Sanctam Ecclesiam Vtique Catholicam In case of reply that if one word be added why not many and if the Church might doe so in one Age why not at other times I rejoyne That one word might be added then but by way of explication only not to supply a mutilous member or defective Article but the Forme being now setled for so many hundred years such liberty is taken away together with the cause of it the full and genuine sence of the Creed having been abundanty delivered to the Church in succeeding Exegeticall Creeds and expositions of the Fathers so that there is now no need of coyning new words or Phrases by way of explication But Secondly We have no need to make use of this supposall for the word Catholick might very well be placed in the Creed from the Original composure of it notwithstanding whatsoever is produced to the contrary from the testimony of Pacianus for this Pacianus Bishop of Barcelona and contemporary to S. Jerome in his first Epistle to Sympronianus the Novatian which is entituled De Catholico Nomine after he had dealt with him very gently in the begining superscribing his Epistle thus Pacianus Symproniano Fratri to winne him over the more effectually to the Communion of the Church in the Body of his Epistle he useth these words Sub Apostolis inquies nemo Catholicus vocabatur Esto sic fuerit vel illud indulge cum post Apostolos haereses
Canon of Scripture for if you say it pertaines to unwritten Traditions as S. Jerome and others tell us we must know that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerne only the Goverment and Rites of the Church whereas the Creed is a Rule of Faith or Doctrine required to be profest by Christians at their Baptisme Answ First To retort a like question why is not the number of the Canonicall Bookes put into the Canon that so we might the more certainly know what Bookes are of Divine Authority and what are Supposititious This sure is a Doctrinall Point the maine Fundamentall one and highly concernes our Faith if any thing doe and yet it is derived unto us by Tradition why may not the Creed in like manner Secondly the Creed is taken out of the Canon of Scripture either in expresse words or by evident and necessary Consequence whereof the Apostles were unerring Iudges reduced only to a Method and set Forme Thirdly The Apostles thought not fit to commit it unto writing but delivered it by word of mouth to the Pastours or Bishops of the Churches whom they left to succeed them and who in a continued Succession downe from the Apostles delivered the Creed unto us Fourthly That unwritten Traditions comprehend not only matters of Practise such as are the Rites Regiment of the Church but also matter of Doctrine I appeale not only to the former instance of the Canon of Scripture and to this of the Creed constantly witnessed by St Ierome with many other Fathers whose testimony deserves much credit but to a Third also the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God of which Mr Perkins no friend of Romish Traditions saith thus That the Virgin Mary lived and died Virgin is received for Truth but yet not recorded in Scripture and in Ecclesiastical Writers many worthy sayings of the Apostles and other holy Men are Recorded and received of us for Truth which neverthelesse are not set downe in the Bookes of the Old or New Testament and many things we hold for Truth not written in the Word if they be not against the Word Thus he in his Reform Cath. of Tradit Concl. 2. Ob. 6th The Creed hath not been preserved so safe from Addition Detraction Mutation as the rest of the Scriptures alwayes have been therefore not likely to have come from the Apostles Answ I could wish that the holy Scriptures had beene kept so safe as the Objectour beares us in hand the Church then would have been more pure and more peaceble But First For Additions Doth not our Church cut off those Apocryphall pieces which were long a goe an next to Daniel and Hester And doe we not find the 151 Psalme added unto the rest a Copy whereof we have in Sixti Sen. Bibliothecâ And in the New Testament for some Ages the Booke called Hermae Pastor was joyned to the Bookes we now have and esteemed by many for Canonicall Secondly For Detraction Have not whole bookes been taken a way by diverse Hereticks who would acknowledge no scripture that made against them For Instance Marcion acknowledged none of the four Gospels but only that of St Luke neither his entirely as Tertullian witnesseth Examples of other Hereticks are almost infinite Yea which is more some Canonicall Bookes for a while were denied or at least doubted of and so left out in diverse Copyes by some Orthodox Doctors of the Church till the Truth became afterwards better cleared as the Epistles of James Iude the Second Epistle of Peter the Second Third Epistles of St Iohn the Epistle to the Hebrewes the Revelation of St Iohn For this we may consult the Syriack Translatiō of the New Testament Thirdly For Mutation The Hereticks of old time who were bold to cut off whole Bookes did much more boldly adventure on changing of verses wordes letters and points The fraud of the Arians both old and new is notorious in this kind Neverthelesse for all these subtile and various Devices of Satan to overthrow Religion and pervert the Word of Truth by these his mischievous Instruments yet some ancient copies both of the Scripture Creed by Gods especiall Providence have been kept entire whereby the rest might be examined and amended Ob. 7th Although the Creed hath ever been much esteemed in the Church yet was it never accounted Canōicall The Ancient Doctors were so far from equalling it with Scripture that they appealed from it thereunto as to an higher Authority so did Cyr. Catech. 4. And Paschasius in his Booke against Macedonius Bib. Pat. Tom. 9. Which without question they never would have done had they thought it had bin from the Apostles in such Forme and as now wee have it Answ First Whether the Creed were accounted for Authority Canonicall that is Divine and unquestionable and for Frame Apostolicall I appeale to all those Ancient Fathers which I have already produced amongst whom Tertullian one very Ancient expresly tels us that the Creed was ordained by Christ viz. by the Ministery of his Apostles who were Authorised by him and assisted by his Spirit to compose it according to that saying of his He that heareth you heareth me Luk. 10. 16. Whence he sends the Hereticks to the Churches founded by the Apostles to find this Doctrine or Rule of Faith there left by them De praesc adv haer cap. 21. Withall he cals it The Canon or Rule of Faith as Irenaeus had done before him and tels us that no part thereof may be cald in question Seconly 'T is not unlikly that some of the Fathers may cite places of Scripture in confirmation of the Creed as the Apostles themselves in their writings bring forth places out of the old Teastament to back and vindicate the truth of what they said yea our Blessed Saviour himselfe oft cites Moses the Prophets and authorizeth his doctrine by their Testimony bidding his Auditours to Search the Scriptures of the old Testament for they are they saith he which Testify of me Io. 5. 39. See also Act. 26. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Iam. 2 14 23. And it is the usuall practise of our preachers at this day to bring proofes for their textuall observations though oft expresse wordes of Scripture out of other paralell Places But as well those citations of the Fathers as these of our Blessed Sauiour and his Apostles are brought not so much to confirme the truth of what they said as to satisfy the mindes of their Auditours which were more fully cōfirmed whē they they saw the joynt correspondence of the Creed with the Scripture and the Gospell with the Law And we find at this day though divine Authority doe abundantly suffice to confirme us in the Grounds of our Religion yet it doth more fully content the judgment of the Learned when they see the probates of Reason to conspire with the dictates of Faith for Instance in the Vnity of the Godhead and the immortality of the Soule Thirdly As for the two Fathers
relation to those other Articles of the Creed which in them lye hid imbosomed for the History of the Acts doth not expresse Passages at large especially such as were ordinarily knowne and practised as the profession of the Creed at Baptisme but briefly toucheth the heads of things the Evangilists doe the like in relation of speeches miracles of our Saviour so that we are faine to compare thē together to find out the several circumstances and make up the Relation entire To prosecute this point a little farther and illustrate it by the like Instance As the Apostles are said to require Faith in Christ and nought else mentioned of the Persons who came to be Baptized so are they said and that oftner to Baptize in the name of Christ without naming any other Person of the Trinity Act. 2. 38 41. And 10. 48. And 19. 5. And yet we cannot imagine that they omitted the mention of the other two Persons First because it was Christs expresse command that they should Baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Mat. 28. 19. Secondly because the Christian Church hath alwayes held that as water is the Essentiall matter so this composure of words is the essentiall Forme of Baptisme and so at no hand to be omitted Wherefore when the businesse of rebaptization was agitated in the Nicene Councell it was determined thus That the Persons Baptized with the formentioned Catholick frō should not be rebaptized as being rightly initiated into the Church though by an hereticall hand but as for the Pauliani the Disciples of Paulus Samosatenus who denyed the Trinity and therefore Baptized in a wrong Forme their Baptisme was pronounced null and invalid those who were so illegally initiated were received by a new Baptisme into te Catholick Church Let us say then with that most ancient Father Irenaeus In Christi nomine subauditur qui unxit ipse qui unctus est ipsa unctio qua unctus est unxit quidem Pater unctus est vero Filius in spiritu qui est unctio that is In the name of Christ is to be understood the Anointer the Anointed and the unction wherewith he was Anointed now he who Anointed is the Father the Person Annointed is the Sonne with the Spirit who is the unction Lastly That the Church had need of such a Formula of Beliefe will appeare both by the Reason mentioned in the objection for Heresies infested the Church from the begining to discover which such a Shibboleth was necessary and if those Heresies had not sprung up so early yet such a Symbole was as necessary at first for prevention as afterwards for Triall But of this more in the next chapter Ob. 9 h S. Aug. saith Verba Symboli per Scripturas sparsa sunt inde collecta ad unum reducta That the words of the Creed lye disperst in the Scriptures from whence they are gathered and reduced into a Forme De Symb. Catech. lib. 1. cap. 1. So likwise Paschasius If so how can the Apostles be the Authors thereof For out of the Old Testament they could not gather that Christ was borne of the Virgin Mary or That he suffered under Pontius Pilate And as for the new many of the Apostles were dead before all was written and James before any was written Answ First The Old Testament may well be said to conteine the whole Creed if not expresly and in the history yet typically and in the Prophecy To instance in those two Articles mentiond in the objection to wit our Saviours Birth and Passion Doth not the Prophet Esay say A Virgin shall conceive and bare a Sonne chap. 7. 14. Yea in the present Vnto us a Child is borne chap. 9. 6. And touching his Passion doth not the same Prophet tel us He was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities he is brought as a Lambe to the slaughter he was cut off the land of the living chap. 53. 5 7 8. And King David in his person They pierced my hands and my feet Psal 22. 16. comp Zach. 12. 10. As for the names of the Virgin and the Judge they are no such considerable Additions as to make a new or another Article so much may well be borrowed from the history of the Gospell yet the Article not improperly sayd to be extant in the Prophecy Secondly The Death of Iames mentioned Act. 12. 1 2. Is placed by Chronologers in the yeare 44. After our Saviours Birth But the writing of S. Mathewes Gospell a Booke sufficient to supply all those Articles which are not expresly conteined in the Old Testament as placed by them in the yeare 41. And so two or three yeers before the death of Iames. In the same yeere 44. Baronius and Lorinus place the Dispersion of the Apostles into their severall provinces and the framing of the Creed by joynt Consent as a necessary Preparative thereunto the dispersion caused by the persecution of Herod and the doore of Faith being now opened to the Gentiles as God himselfe had informed them by the Vision shewed to Peter before he converted Cornelius Act. 10. 11. and 15. 7. But this is agreed on all Hands that whether this dispersion were sooner as Corn. a lap placeth it Anno Domini 37. or latter as Appollonius cited by Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 17. that S. Mathew wrote his Gospell before it and that in the Hebrew Tongue the language of the Jewes amongst whom and for whose use he wrote it as Irenaeus Origen and others witnesse though it were soon after translated into Greek by Iames the Lords Brother and Bishop of Jerusalem for an Hebrew Transcript thereof was carried by S. Bartholomew into the Indies and found there by Pantaenus of Alexandria Origens Master as witnesse Euseb lib. 5. cap. 9. Ier. de Scriptor Eccles cap. 36. in Pantaeno And another Transcript thereof was carried by Barnabas S. Pauls fellow-Apostle unto the Gentiles whither he was sent which he used alwaies to carry about with him and which was after found buried with him in Cyprus in the time of Zeno the Emperour lying upon his Breast The same Authors also agree that the Creed was framed by the Apostles a little before this generall Dispersion Therefore when we are told that the Ancients place the composing of the Creed in the next yeare after our Saviours Ascension and consequently before the writing of S. Mathewes Gospell the matter is much mistaken Ruffinus and S. Augustine say indeed that the Apostles composed the Creed after our Saviours Ascension and after the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost but how long after they determine not They agree it was composed before their generall Dispersion into the severall quarters of the World which happened not in S. Stephens Persecution for then they abode all at Ierusalem Acts 8. 1. nor before the conversion of Cornelius by S. Peter Act. 10. For the set
third Day he rose againe according to the Scriptures Christs descent into Hell as we see in this Collation is expressely set downe but in two Creeds namely this of the Apostles and the Athanasian although the Fathers of the first Ages generally acknowledge it and mention it in their writings for which we may looke back on the Creeds of Thaddaeus and Ignatius set downe before The reason therefore why it is omitted in other Creeds I conceive to be this That they held it involved or presupposed in the following word The third Day he rose againe from the Dead For Christ may not improperly be said to have risen the third Day according to both Parts from the Grave in his Body from Hell a low place especially in comparison of Heaven in his Soule So both Parts in this Rising met together from two severall Places whether they had before Descended both which places are set downe in holy Scripture as the Receptacles of the Dead as well Good as Bad so 't is in either a Rising from the Dead and are joyntly called by the names of Sheol Hades Inferi This also S. Chrysostome in setting downe the Creed passeth by Christs ascension into Heaven as being included in or presupposed by that which followes His sitting at the Right Hand of the Father See Gen. 37. 35. Job 26. 6. Psal 86. 13. 139 8. Prov. 15. 11. Isa 13. 9. Luk. 16. 23. Rev. 1. 18. chap. 20. 13. Artic. VI. Apost He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right Hand of God the Father Almighty East And ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father Nic. hath the same Aquil. the same Athan. He ascended into Heaven he sitteth on the right hand of the Father God Almighty Antioch And he ascended into Heaven Article VII Apost From whence he shall come to judge the quicke and the dead East And he shall come to judge the quicke and the dead Nic. Who shall come againe with glory to judge the quicke and the dead of whose kingdome there shall be no end Aquil. From thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the deade Athan. From whence he shall come to judge the quicke and the Dead Antioch And he shall come againe to judge the quicke and the dead Article VIII Apost I believe in the Holy Ghost East And in the Holy Ghost the comforter who spake by the Prophets Nic. And in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne according to the Latines who with the Father and the Sonne together is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets Aquil. And in the Holy Ghost Athan There is another Person of the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost is God the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son Neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding Article IX Apost I believe the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints East One holy Catholick Church Nic. One holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Aquil. The holy Catholick Church Where Ruffinus in his explication interprets Holy by that which preserves the Faith or Religion of Christ entire and opposeth the Church to the Conventicles of severall Hereticks which he calls Concilia vanitatis thus explaining the word Catholick and the Communion of Saints Article X. Apost The forgivenesse of Sinnes East One Baptisme of Repentance for the Remission of Sinnes Nic I acknowledge one Baptisme for the Remission of Sinnes Aquil. The Remission of Sinnes Article XI Apost The Resurrection of the Body East And the Resurrection of the Body Nice And I look for the Resurrection of the Dead Athan. At whose comming All men shall rise againe with their Bodies and shall give an account for their own Workes Aquil. The Resurrection of this Body In the Exposition whereof Ruffinus hath these words Et ideo satis cautâ providâ adjectione Ecclesia nostra Aquilegiensis docet quae in eo quod a caeteris traditur Carnis Resurrectionem uno addito pronomine tradit Hujus Carnis Resurrectionem hujus sine dubio quam is qui profitetur signaculo Crucis fronti imposito contingit That is our Church the Aquileian hath warily and providently added the Pronoune This to the Article of the Resurrection of the Body which is delivered without it in other Churches This Body that is which he toucheth who maketh profession of the Creed having the Signe of the Crosse made upon his Forehead whence we may observe not only the Antiquity of the Crosse in Baptisme but the custome also of the ancient Church in adding some exegeticall particles to the Creed as a Thing publickly received and practised in the Christian World Article XII Apost And life Everlasting East And life Everlasting Nic. And the life of the World to come Athan. And they that have done good shall goe into life Everlasting and they that have done Evill into Everlasting fire Aquil. Incloseth it in the precedent Article of the Resurrection in the explication whereof Ruffinus hath these words Dabitur peccatoribus incorruptionis immortalitatis ex Resurrectione conditio ut sicut Deus justis ministrat ad perpetuitatem Gloriae ista peccatoribus ad prolixitatem confusionis ministret paenae That is Sinners also shall rise to an immortall and incorruptible estate so that as God affourdeth the rightious everlasting Glory he also prepareth the sinners for length of shame and sorrow Ob. 14th That Creed which was neithe made by the Apostles nor by any Generall Councell nor was recieved by the Greeke or Easterne Churches but in the Church of Rome and had beene so long recited and used in the Church now about the yeare 400 that then it was held an Apostolicall Tradition which it is certaine was conveyed also by the Church of Rome to other Churches of the West the Easterne Churches in the meane time using other Creeds that Creed was composed by those who had the Government of the Romane Church but there is nought of this which agreeth not to the Creed that we call the Apostles therefore the Bishop and Presbyters of the Church of Rome composed it Answ This is the summary Argument used to disprove the Authors of the Creed and which we have already answered by Parts For that the Creed was composed by the Apostles we have proved at large both by Authorities and Arguments That it was received for the full sense and substance thereof in the Greeke or Easterne Churche appears both by what we have before cited out of the Greeke Fathers especially Marcellus and Chrysostome as also by the foresaid Parallell of the Jerosolymitan Nicene Antiochian and Athanasian Creeds with the Romane and Aquileian That it was held an Apostolicall Tradition by the Church of Rome before the yeare 400 appeares by the forecited Testimonies of the Laine Fathers Irenaeus Tertullian Ambrose and others That it was convaied by the Church of Rome to other Churches of the West which the Objector invidiously
ad divinam doctrinam certa humilitatis atque Charitatis firmitate surgentibus quod multis verbis exponendo esset perficiendum Secondly For the due bounding of our Faith and Charity There are many lesser circumstantiall Points in divinity which Christians may differ about Salva Fide Charitate without prejudice to either but others there be of farre higher Concernment requisite to the very beeing of a true and rightly grounded Christian these we call Fundamentall Points the Nescience of most whereof but the denyall of any is destructive of Salvation whithout ensuing repentance Now it was necessary that these should be knowen and severed from the rest that so the Church might know whome to admit to Baptisme and acknowledg for her Children and on the other side Whom to reject or cut off as Heretickes misbelievers Yea besides that every private Christian might know by this Rule whom to communicate with and whom to fly from and avoid as Heathens and Publicans in our Saviours Language To demonstrate this Father namely that the Creed conteines all Points which a good Christian is bound of necessity to believe I shall produce a Reason or two and thereto subjoine the testimonies of the Ancients which among other Corollaries hence deducible will serve to free the true reformed Churches from that just imputation of Heresy which the Church of Rome hath been pleased to lay upon Them for al of thē generally unanimously imbrace the Creed as appeares by their severall confessions and therfore cannot justly be charged with heresy in the ancient which is the true and genuine acception of the word The reasons are these two which follow First the End for which the Apostles Framed the Creed cannot be imagined to be any other than this viz. To give us a Breviary of the fundamentall Doctrines of Faith Dare we say that the Apostles came short of this their end It must be then either for want of Power or want of will Now to affirme they could not compasse it is little better then Blasphemy and to affirme they would not when they might must needs argue them of grosse negligence in their function and uncharitablnesse to the Christian church faults wholy uncompatible with the Apostolick office and Zeale Secondly The name of Symbole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke and Regula Fidei The Rule of Faith in the Latine whereby the Ancients style the Creed argue the compleatnesse of it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Nota or Indicium the Creed being the note of difference between the true Children of the Church and those who were either unbelievers or misbelievers And the Rule of Faith as Tertullian calls it or The Rule of Truth as Irenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That unerring Rule of Truth which we received in Baptisme from whom Chrysostome and Austin borrowed the terme who opposed the Creed to the Placita of Hereticks and will have them examined ad hujus amussim by the line or Rule of the Creed must be adequate to the Faith or necessary Truth whereof it is a Rule niether larger nor narrower for else it looseth the very nature of a Rule To this Truth the Fathers give in their Suffrages I shall set downe the Testimonies of some who were the most Ancient and the most famous in their Times 1. The Creed is called Breve Evangelium the Epitome or breviary of the Gospell like Homers Workes inclosed in a nutshell according to the saying of S. Bartholomew recorded by Dionys Arear lib de myst Theo. cap. 1. 2. Clem. Romanus in his forecited Epistle Ad Fratrem Domini calls the Creed Summun totius Fidei Catholicae the Summary of the Catholick Faith and farther saith that in it Integritas credulitatis ostenditur The entire or whole Faith of a Christian is declared 3. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians after he had reckoned up those Heads of the Creed which touched our Saviour concludes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He who fully knowes and believes these things is Blessed that is as fare as concernes these Articles or this part of the Faith which relates to our Saviour the same holdes in proportion of the rest otherwise not only a right beliefe although full and entire but a good life also are requisite to happinesse 4. Irenaeus tels us that many barbarous Nations who had not the Bookes of Scripture among them yet Sine Charactere vel atramento Scriptam habuerunt per Spiritum sanctum in Cordibus suis salutem Had Salvation wrote in their Hartes by the Finger of the holy Ghost without the helpe of Pen and Inke Where by Salvation he understands the Tradition of the Creed as appeares by the following words so called by a Metonymie because it is a meanes in its kind sufficient to Salvation Thus he lib. 3. cap. 4. The same Father elswhere gives this testimony of the fulnesse of the Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Neither the most able Orator amongst the Pastors of the Church can say more than this for no man is above his Teacher or Master neither he who is weake in speech can distinguish or speake lesse than this Tradition for there beeing one and the same Faith neither he who is able to speake much of it hath augmented it nor he who is able to say litle hath lessened it at all 5. Origen in the preface of his Bookes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that the Holy Apostles Preaching the Faith of Christ De quibusdam quidem c. Concerning some Points most plainly delivered unto all Believers even the most dull and slow whatsoever they judged necessary where by Necessaries he understandes the Articles of the Creed which he there reckons up 6. Cyril of Jerusalem in his fift Catechesis speaking of the Creed useth these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we comprehend saith he the whole Doctrine of Faith in a few versicles And afterwardes comparing it unto a small graine of mustard-seed which virtually containes many Branches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also doth this Creed in a few words comprehend the whole doctrine of Religion which is delivered in the old new Testament 7. Eusebius Galicanus commonly called Emesenus in the begining of his second Homily on the Greed hath these words Hanc nobis fidem velut magnam lampadem Christus adveniens errantibus viam monstraturus exhibuit per quem possit Deus ignotus requiri quaesitus credi creditus inveniri This Faith or Creed saith he like some great Lampe Christ exhibited for his comming thus shewing the way to those in errour By help wherof God who was before unknowne might be sought being sought might be believed on being believed on might be found The same Father in his first Homily derives the name Symbolum from Caena collatitia and then tels us that De utroque Testamento totius Corporis virtus in paucas est diffusa sententias ut facilius animae Thesaurus
non in Arca sed in memoria portaretur The quintessence of the whole Body of Scripture is extracted into a few Sentences that so this precious Treasure of the Soule might be the more easily borne not in a Chest but in the Conscience After this he brings two similies to the same purpose comparing the Creed to a picture wherein are united all the severall Graces of the choisest Beauties and to a Rich Man journying who puts all his wealth into a few Jewells which are easily portable 8. S. Austin in his 181 Sermon De Tempore gives this Elogy of the Creed Symbolum breve est verbis sed magnum est Sacramentis quicquid enim praefiguratum est in Scripturis quiquid praedictum est in Prophetis vel de Deo ingenito vel ex Deo in Deum nato vel de spiritu Sancto vel de suscipiendo omni Sacramento vel de morte Domini resurrectonisque ejus mysterio totum breviter hoc Symbolum continet That is The Creed is litle for words but large in mysteries for what soever was prefigured in the Patriarchs proclaimed in Scripture foretould in the Prophets either concerning God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost or of undertaking the mysterious worke of our Salvation or concerning the Death resurrection of the Lord this Creed doth conteine in briefe 9. Leo the Great in his 13th Epistle written to the Empresse Pulcheria calls the Creed as is fore-alleadged The short and Perfect Confession of the Catholick Symbole distinctly marked forth by the twelve Apostles into so many sentences Tanquam instructa sit munitione Caelesti ut omnes haereticorum opiniones solo ipsius possint gladio detruncari cujus plenitudinem si Eutiches c. As compleatly furnisht with celestiall armour so that the the Heades of all hereticall opinions may be cut off by its sword alone the Fulnesse whereof if Eutiches c. 10. Cassianus in his sixt Booke of the Incarnation of our Lord speakes fully to this purpose Quicquid per universum c. whatsoever is largly diffused throughout the whole Body of the Scriptures is all summed up in the perfect breviary of the Creed The place we have cited more at large chap. 5. 11. Venantius Fortunatus in the preface to his explication of the Creed begins thus Fidei Catholicae totius summam recensentes in quâ integritas Credulitatis ostenditur unius Dei omnipotentis id est Sanctae Trinitatis aequalitas declaratur mysterium Incarnationis Filii Dei c. That is Whilst we declare the summe of the whole Catholicke Faith wherein the entire beliefe of a Christian is set forth with the equality of one Almighty God that is of the Holy Trinity and the mystery of the incarnation of the Sonne of God c. where he useth the very words of Clemens Rom. Which we forecited Then he concludes Cunctis credentibus quae continentur in Symbolo salus animarum vitae perpetua bonis actibus praepareiur Let all those who believe the Things contained in the Creed provide by good workes for the salvation of their Soules and life everlasting that Creed being sufficient for matter of beliefe as good workes are for matter of practise 12. I shall conclude these Testimonies of the Ancients with these words of Erasmus lib. de Rat. verae Theolog. Vtinam nostra credulitas Symbolo esset contenta ubi caepit esse minus Fidei inter Christianos mox increvit Symbolorum modus numerus Would to God saith he our Beliefe had been contented with the Creed when there began to be lesse Faith amongst Christians the Creeds straitwaies increased both in bulk number For the farther clearing of this Truth I shall adde to the Authority of the Ancients the Testimonies of some noted Doctors in the Roman Church who make the Apostles Creed the Breviary of the Faith and the note or signe to distinguish the Orthodox Professors from Hereticks as well as Infidells and so by a necessary consequence free the Reformed Churches from the injurious imputation of Heresy seeing they all unanimously receive the Creed in the old Primitive sense as it was expounded and enlarged by the foure first generall Councells 1. Aquinas 2a 2ae qu. 1. Art 9. speaking of the Apostles Creed useth these words Necessarium fuit fidei veritatem in unum colligi ut facilius posset omnibus proponi ne aliquis per ignorantiam fidei a veritate deficeret Et ab hujusmodi sententiarum fidei collectione nomen Symboli est acceptum It was necessary saith he for the Poynts of the true Faith to be drawn into one from which Collection of Sentences it took the name of Symbolum that so they might the more easily be presented to all and for this end least any one should depart from it through ignorance Whence it will follow that all necessary poynts of Faith are therein contained for if any were wanting there were roome left for ignorance 2. Canisius in his Catechisme maketh this Question Estné brevis aliqua fidei complexio ac summa omnium nobis credendorum Is there any short summary of the faith and collection of all Poynts to be believed He answers Est illa quam 12 Apostoli suo Symbolo tradiderunt quod quidem Symbolum velut illustris not a est qua Christiani ab Impiis qui vel nullam vel non rectam Christi fidem profitentur discernendi ac internoscendi sunt There is namely That which the Twelve Apostles have delivered in their Creed which Creed is a famous marke or signe whereby Christians are to be discerned from those ungodly persons who either professe no faith or not the Right 3. Augerius in his Catechisme proposeth the like question Estné brevis aliqua methodus fidei quae necessario nobis tenenda est Is there any short method or rule of Faith which is necessary to be held by us He answers Est quidem ab ipsis Apostolis tradita quae Symbolum ideo vocari solet quod sit quaedam Illustris notae quâ Christianos distinguimus ab iis qui Idololatrarum superstitionem haereticorum impiotatem comitantur There is such an one and that delivered by the Apostles themselves which is therefore commonly called a Symbole because it is a certain marke of note whereby we distinguish Christians from those who follow the superstition of Idolaters and the impiety of Hereticks 4. The Romane Catechisme set forth by the Decree of the Councell of Trent and of Pius 5. hath these words touching the Creed Hanc fidei formulam Symbolum Apostoli appellârunt quia eâ veluti notâ tessera quadam uterentur quâ desertos subintroductos falsos fratres qui evangelium adulterabant ab iis qui verè Christi militiae sacramento se obligarent facilè possent internoscere That is This forme of Beliefe the Apostles called a Symbole because they made use of it as a certain Token or watch word whereby they might easily discerne
adjectum neither added any thing thereto therefore they judged that Doctrine full and compleat Now that by the Doctrine of the Apostles he meanes the Creed appears clearly by the precedent words The forecited Testimonies of Jo. Pappus Chr. Barbarossa and Pet. Martyr say as much which who so please may looke back upon for farther satisfaction CAP X. The Third head of this Discourse namely The severall Reasons or significations of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Creed beares in the Originall Greeke THE Apostles Creed is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Symbole for more Reasons than one all taken from the severall Significations of the word found even in profane Authors First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Collecta or Collatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conferendo that is a Feast or Supper whereto every one of the Guests brought his share either in meat or mony which kind of Feast was also by an other usuall name called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this acception of the word well suits with the Creed as having reference both to the Makers and the Matter For the makers or Composers of the Creed were the twelve Apostles parallell in number to the twelve Articles whereof it consists And the matter of the Creed consists of the severall points of Faith gathered out of the whole Scripture and heare United in one methodicall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Breviary This also well consorts with an other signification of the word mentioned by Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. 33. cap. 1. Both Greekes and Romanes saith he in latter Times called a Ring Symbolum Probably from the severall parcels or graines of Gold melted and fashioned into one Orbicâ—e which graines aptly signify the severall Parts and the orbicular figure the Perfection of the Creed This reason of the name we find given by Clemens Romanus Ruffinus Saint Austin Cassianus and Venantius Fortunatus Secondly The word signifies Tessera Pacti a Tally in Contracts a Bond or Indenture such as we make with God in our Baptisme by profession of our Faith in the Creed wherein the Articles of our Covenant with God for matter of Beliefe are comprized from which if we recede we breake our Covenant and so renounce our Christendome thereby forfeiting all the priviledges of our Baptisme This reason of the name is rendred by Chrysologus Hom. 62. in Symb. Placitum vel pactum quod lucri spes venientis continet vel futuri Symbolum nuncupari contractu etiam docemur humano quod tamen Symbolum inter duos format semper geminata conscriptio in stipulatione cautum reddit humana cautela ne cui surrepat ne quem decipiat perfidia contractibus semper inimica Sed hoc inter homines inter quos fraus a quo facta est aut cui facta est semper laedit inter Deum vero homines Symbolum fidei sola fide firmatur non literae sed spiritui creditur mandatur cordi non chartae quia divinum Creditum humana non indiget Cautione And alittle after Sed dicis qui falli non potest quid est quod exiget Placitum Quid Symbolum quaerit quaerat ille propter te non propter se non quia ille dubitat sed ut tu Credas The summe is That in humane Contracts there are required two Symbola or Tabellae the Indenture and the Counterpane and both these in writing to prevent mistakes and cheatings but one only is required in our Baptismall contract or Covenant to wit our Bond giuen to God not in writing but by way of parole publisht in the face of the Church The reason is because God can be neither decieved nor decieve but we unlesse thus bound might through humane frailty more easily depart from the Faith profest and in fringe our Articles not to the decieving of God who knowes us better than our selves but to the destroying of our Grace and the forfeiting of our glory Hitherto also belongs that of Genebrard in his Booke De Trinitate Aristoteles pulchre dixit elementa quae inter se qualitate unâ communicant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solebant autem Graeci in pactis conventis uti quibusdam tesseris quae loco tabularum syngrapharumque essent ex quibus jus diceretur quae vocarentur Symbola ergo summa fidei compendio verborum concepta ab Apostolis sive ab Ecclesiâ representativâ verè Existit Symbolum quòd ea in judicium Ecclesiae relata declaret penes eum Religionis virtutem esse qui ipsa in suae fidei Probationem confert nam certe penes illum consistit Religionis veritas cui benè credulitate convenit cum doctrinâ Apostolicâ cujus Symbolum est consensionis conventique nota certissima Thirdly The word signifies Tessera Amicitiae or Tessera hospitalis a certaine Token which not only particular men gave to their Friends and Allies but which Citties also publikly be stowed on some well-deserving men that so in their Travailes they might upon producing thereof be friendly received and courteously entertained in the confederate Townes So Budaeus informes us out of Lysias the Orator Now this Confession of our Faith in the Creed hath the same nature and use among all Churches wheresoever disperst over the face of the whole Earth for whosoever brings this Tessera or Token with him is to be received as a Brother But if there come any unto you saith St John and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed 2 Io. 10. To this Sence alludes Leo the Great in his Epistle or Tract against Eutyches Fraterna vos paterna solicitudine commonemus ut inimicos Catholicae fidei hostes Ecclesiae incarnationis dominicae negatores instituto a Sanctis Apostolis Symbolo repugnantes in nullum recipiatis consensionis affectum we warne you out of a fraternall and a fatherly care that ye receive not into your communion the enimies of the Catholick Faith the adversaries of the Church the Denyers of the Lords incarnation and the oppugners of the Creed by the holy Apostles Fourthly The word signifies Insigne militare a military Flag Ensigne or Banner by which Souldiers are knowen to what Captaine or Generall they belong So Herodian in the 4th booke of his history tells us of the Emperour Antonius Caracalla that partly to ingratiate himselfe the more with the Souldiers partly to harden himselfe in warlike exercises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sometimes bare on his own shoulders the weightiest Ensignes of the Army Now this signification also well agrees to the Creed for by this Profession of our Faith we shew that we belong to Christ our Generall fighting under his Banner against our three enemies the World the Flesh and the Divell His Cognizance we take on us in our Baptisme by attesting to the Creed either in our own Persons if Adulti or if Infants in Personis Susceptorum Fiftly
The word signifies Tessera militaris a watch-word whereby Souldiers of the same Army or Campe know one an other and discerne themselves from the Enemy Which signification among all the Rest seemes most proper to the Creed because by this profession of the Faith Christians are distinguisht not only from Iewes Turkes and Infidels but more especially from Hereticks those Renegados and Deserters of the Christian Faith For as watch-wordes are most necessary in civill warres where the Difference is between the same Countrymen who use the same Language apparell armes and manner of fighting these being the only signes and tokens whereby they may try those whom they suspect discover whether they be true friends or concealed Enimies so Hereticks professe Christ in outward shew and take his name upon them but doe not truely Preach him secundum Apostolicas Regulas non integris Traditionum lineis nunciantes to use the words of Ruffinus what out of Pride Curiosity or discontent what for gaine or Belly they frame new Doctrines of their owne some besides some against the Foundation which they obtrude upon the Faith of others Now the watch word to discover these false Apostles these Deceitfull workers who transformed themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13. Was anciently the Creed If upon examination they embraced this in the old Catholick sense they were received as Brethren if not they were rejected and avovded as spies false Brethren Corrupters of the Faith The Heathens also had the like Custome to give for their wathwords the names of their Gods their suposed Deityes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minerva and the like what fitter watchword then for a Christian than the profession of his Faith in the true God the thrise-holy Trinity which he makes in the Creed And this may be therefore judged the most proper in this Place and most likely to be intended by the first entitlers because the Ancient Church of God following his Patterne in holy Scripture useth many other the like military Termes and seemeth to delight in the metaphor The Church her self is described Terrible as an Army with Banners Cant. 6. 4. Our Blessed Saviour is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cheife Captaine or Generall of our Salvation Heb. 2. 10. And S. Paul exhorts Timothy whom he had left his Lieutenant at Ephesus to endure hardnesse as a good Souldier of Iesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 3. In opposition to which that I may give this note by the way the heathen Souldiers under the Christian Emperors got the name of Pagani because when they refused to renounce their Idolatry and so become Christians they were dimissi in Pagos cashiered and sent into the Villages and so returned unto their country Life To proceed our Christian Virtues or graces are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Compleat Armour of God Eph. 6. 11. 13. The particulars whereof are there described The grand mysteries of our Salvation have the name of Sacraments given them now Sacramentum properly signifies that Oath of obedience which Souldiers took unto their Generall lastly that part of the Church which here on Earth is styled Millitant that in Heaven Triumphant Suitably then doth the Creed weare the name of Symbolum a watchword The Reason of the name we find given by Clemens Romanus Ruffinus Maximus Taurinensis and Isidore Bishop of Sevil. CAP XI The fourth Head of this Discourse namely The Division or Parts of the Creed THE Apostles Creed hath a double Division among Divines to wit A greater and a lesse The one distributes into foure generall Partes The other Anatomizeth it into twelve Articles limbes or joynts for this is the literall signification of the word Articulus which make up the entire Body of Christian Faith As to the first Division The foure generall Parts of the Creed have for their Object God and man viz. The three Persons of the sacred Trinity and the Church instructing us what we should believe of either 1. The first part is touching God the Father and consists but of one Article 2. The second Part is touching God the Sonne and comprehendeth six Articles 3. The third part is touching God the holy Ghost and consists but of one Article as the first did 4. The fourth Part is concerning the Church and a threefold benefit conferd by God upon it answerable in number to the Persons of the sacred Trinity viz. The Remission of sinnes by the Father Eph. 4. 32. Resurrection of the Body by the Sonne Io. 6. 39. Mat. 24. 31. everlasting Life by the holy Ghost the Spirit of life and Glory Gal. 6. 8. Rev. 11. 11. Pet. 4. 14. Then for the Second division The Creed brancheth it selfe into twelve Articles vsually referred to the twelve Apostles in severall but however answerable to their number The Articles we have already distinctly set downe and compared them with six other succeeding Creeds These twelve Articles are compared by some to the twelve Stones which Ioshua in his passage over to Jericho took out of the middest of Iordan to frame an Altar within Gilgal in memory of having gotten possesion of the promised land For the holy Scriptures wherout these Articles of our Beliefe are taken are the true waters of life a spirituall Iordan The river it selfe was sanctifyed by the the very Person of our Saviour when he descended into it at his Baptisme in which solemnity all his Disciples have since made a Publicke profession of their Faith by attesting to the Creed The twelve Articles thereof compiled into one Body well resemble those twelve Stones framed into an Altar and that Altar erected in memory of the Promises now obteined the heavenly Canaan typifyed by the earthly for the Creed conteines the great benefites of God towards his Church heretofore possessed in shadow but now in substance by vertue of our Blessed Saviours Purchase who was the Antitipe of Iosua In whom the promises of God are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. But by others they are more appositely compared to the twelve foundation-stones mentioned in Reve. 21. 14. Which are there said to support the wall of the new Ierusalem and wherein as it is there expresly set downe the Names the twelve Apostles of the Lambe were written This new Ierusalem is Christs Church on Earth for it is there styled The Tabernacle of God with men ver 3. The wall of this Citty is the Faith or professed doctrine of the Church whereby it is guarded against her enimies and seperated from all other Religions And the twelve Stones in the foundation of this wall are the twelve Articles of the Creed which be the Groundes of our Faith the Fundamentalls of Christian Religion To the same sense and purpose S. Paul compares the Church to an holy Temple built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the cheife Corner Stone Eph. 2. 20 21. Now this foundation of the Apostles and Prophets cannot be understood of their Persons for they
the latter end of the tenth Century hath these wordes in his Apollogetick which he made to the Kings of France Hugh and Robert Father and Son Primitus de fide dicendum credidi quaÌ„ alternantibus Choris in Francia apud Anglorum Ecclesiam variari audivi Alii enim dicunt ut arbitror secundum Athanasium Spiritus Sanctus a Patre Filio non factus non Creatus sed procedens qui dum id quod est nec genitus subtrahunt Synodicum D. Gregorii se sequi credunt ubi ita est scriptum spiritus sanctus nec ingenitus est nec genitus sed procedens that is I thought meet to speak first concerning the Faith which I find diversly expressed in the French and English Churches for some say as I suppose according to Athanasius The holy Ghost not made nor Created but proceeding from the Father and the Son who in leaving out that particle nor begotten conceive they follow the Synodicall of S. Gregory in which it is thus written The holy Ghost is neither unbegotten nor begotten but proceeding To which words Baron in his Annals ad A. 1001 thus attests Vides lector in his jaÌ„ ante sexcentos annos Symbolum vere ejus esse absque dubitatione credituÌ„ praedicatum thou seest here Reader that above six hundred yeares agoe the Creed which goes under the name of Athanasius was verely believed to be his without the least doubt to the contrary And well might he say so for that ambiguous clause ut arbitror as I suppose in this Testimony of Abbo hath no reference to the Author but to the words and to the various Copies of Athanasius his Creed as appears by the scope and purpose of the Abbot in his Citation 10 That this Creed was asscribed to Athanasius in the Time of Charles the Bald will appeare first out of the second Book of Rathrannus Monke of Corbey written by him against the Greekes a Book not yet extant in Print Secondly out of the first Booke of Aeneas Bishop of Paris written also against the Greeks c. 19. Thirdly out of the Capitulum of Hincmarus Arch-Bishop of Rheims which he gave to the Presbyters of his Diocesse Aº 852. See the first Capit. in Apend Tom. 3-Conc Gall. set forth by Sirmondus But for all three See Armac de Symb. 11. The fourth Councell of Toledo held in the yeare of our Lord 671 according to the edition of Io. Garsia Loaisa and in the third yeare of K. Sisenandus by threescore and two Bishops whereof Isidore of Sevil was one thus professeth its Faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed only somewhat contracting them for thus the Fathers of the councell begin cap. 1. Secundum divinas Scripturas doctrinam quam a Sanctis Patribus accepimus Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum unius Deitatis atque Substantiae confitemur in Personarum diversitate Trinitatem credentes in Divinitate unitatem praedicantes nec Personas confundimus nec substantiam seperamus Patrem a nullo factum vel genitum dicimus Christus descendit ad Inferos ut sanctos qui ibidem tenebantur erueret devictoque mortis Imperio resurrexit mortui resuscitandi sunt ab eo Iesu Christo in die novissimo percepturi ab ipso alii pro justitiae meritis vitam aeternam alii pro peccatis supplicii aeterni sententiam Haec est ecclesiae Catholicae fides Hanc Confessionem conservamus atque tenemus quam quisquis firmissime custodierit perpetuam salutem habebit that is According to the Scriptures of God the Doctrine which we have received from the holy Father we professe the Father Sonne and holy Ghost to have the same Godhead and Substance believing a Trinity in a diversity of Persons and an Unity in the Godhead neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance we say that the Father was made of none nor begotten Christ descended into Hell that he might deliver the Saints that were there detained and having conquered the Power of Death he rose againe The Dead are to be raised up by him at the last Day to receive from him some for their righteous deeds life eternall others for their sins the sentence of everlasting punishment This is the Faith of the Catholick Church This Confession we preserve and hold which whosoever shall firmely keepe shall obteine everlasting Salvation 12. In two very Ancient Latine Psalters which are in S. Rob. Cottons Library we find Athanasius his Creed together with that of the Apostles conteining the same number of Heads with that of our Dayes In the former Psalter saith the Reverend Learned Armachanus which we gather to be as old as Gregory the first viz. 1050 years both by the old fashion of the Pictures the largenesse of the Characters Athanasius his Creed bears the name of Fides Catholica as it doth also in an other Psalter of S. Lewis 9th extant in King James his Library the other is called Symbolum Apostolorum In the latter Psalter which was once K. Athelstans That of the Apostles hath Symply the name of Symbolum the other is called Fides S. Athanasii Alexandrini The Faith of S. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria 13. Boethius that great Scholler and Statesman in the Reigne of Theodorick the Goth in his Book De Trinitate hath these words at the Beginning which referre us plainly enough to the Creed of Athanasius Fidei Catholicae haec de Trinitatis unitate Sententia est Pater inquiunt Deus Filius Deus Spiritus sanctus Deus igitur Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus unus Deus non tres Dii That is This is the Decree of the Catholick faith concerning the unity of the Trinity The Father they say is God the Sonne God the Holy Ghost God therefore the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost are one God not three Gods On which words Venerable Bâ—de our Countryman makes this Glosse Haec est fides quâ credimus quae dicitur Catholica unde in Symbolo Haec est fides Catholica quam nisi quisque crediderit c. Haec est una apud omnes unde Apostolus una fides unum Baptisma that is This is the Faith wherein we believe which is called Catholick whence we say in the Creed this is the Catholick Faith which Whosoever doth not believe c. This Faith is the same among All whence that of the Apostle One Faith One Baptisme 14. S. Augustin in severall Parts of his workes takes whole sentences out of this Creed of Athanasius which shews that it was then extant and used by the Church In his Booke De Trinitate cap. 8. He hath these words Omnipotens Pater Omnipotens Filius omnipotens Spiritus sanctus tameÌ„ non tres Omnipotentes sed unus Omnipotens Ibidem Deus Pater Deus Filius Deus Spiritus sanctus tamen non tres Dii sed unus est Deus that is The Father is Almighty the Sonne Almighty the holy Ghost Almighty and yet there are
not three Almightyes but one Almighty Againe The Father is God the Sonne is God and the holy Ghost is God yet there be not three Gods but one God Which last passage he repeats word for Word in his 174th Epistle written to Pascentius So in his Enchiridion cap. 36. Sicut anima rationalis Caro unus est homo ita Deus homo unus est Christus As the Reasonable Soule and the Body are one man so God and man are one Christ Now these are the Passages for which the Sectaries chiefly deny the Authenticalnesse of this Creed The same father shuts up his Soliloquies whih this Prayer O tres coaequales coaeternae personae Deus unus c. O three Coequall and Coeternall Persons one God c. Neither can we with any probability say that such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were casuall S. Augustine lighting by chance on the same expressions as Athanasius had used writing on the same Subject for besides the unlikelinesse of hitting upon the same very words in severall passages without the least variation we may please to take notice that the Fathers of the first Ages were very punctuall in following the steps of their Ancestors not only in the matter of Faith but in the very forme of expression not accustoming themselves to vary or invent new Phrases except upon necessity and the urgency of Hereticks The sight of these passages caused the great Annalist Baronius to use these words Aliquod Symboli Athanasiani exemplar c. I easily perswade my selfe that a Copy of the Athanasian Creed was convayed unto the Churches beyond Sea by some African Bishop who as it oft fell out at other Times was present at that Romane Synod under Julius seeing it seemes to have come unto S. Austins knowledge whose writings appeare interlaced with some Passages thereof especially in his Comment on Psal 120. v. 6. The Sunne shall not burne thee by day nor the Moone by night where according to Possevins citation Apparat Sac. voce Athanasius though now the reading be somewhat varied he useth these words De hoc Sole c. Concerning this Sunne the holy Father Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria thus excellently spake The Sonne of God is from the Father alone neither made nor created but begotten 15. An old Manuscript containing the Historicall Fragments of S. Hilary which came forth of the Library of P. Pithaeus and was Printed at Paris in the yeare 1598. sets downe this Creed and entitles it to Athanasius with this Preface Fides dicta a S. Athanasio sive Symbolum quod ejus nomen praefert The Faith pronounced by S. Athanasius or the Creed which bears his name 16. But the most Ancient and pregnant Proofe of this Creed we have from the mouth of Gregory Nazianzen in his 21 Oration which he wrote in the praise of Athanasius num 44 45. the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Athanasius presented the Emperour with a Gift truly Royall and magnificent a Pious writing against an unwritten Innovation that so one Emperour Speech and writing might overcome the other This Confession of his is received with much veneration both by the Westerne Christians and those of the East as many as have the life of Faith in them of whom some believe it in their heart if you will believe what they say but they bring it not forth to light so that it lies like a dead Embryo in the Mothers Wombe others somewhat blow and kindle this sparke of Faith so farre as to accord with the Time and to give satisfaction to the more Godly and zealous of the Orthodox Laity but others there be who boldly professe the Truth of which party I desire to be To this agrees the Author of that Greeke Book of the Procession of the Holy Ghost which was given to Lazarus Bayffius K. Francis 1. Embassador at Venice in the yeare 1533. Who not only Entitles this Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Confession of S. Athanasius but farther confirmes its Authority by this Testimony of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Gregory the Divine saith he makes mention also of this Confession in his Encomiastick Oration of Athanasius in which he saith He first of all and alone This Confession of his is received with much veneration c. Where he cites the Oration and sets downe the words The Author of this Book who ever hee were lived in the time when the Controversy of the Procession was hotly agitated between the Greekes and Latines which was about the ninth and tenth Centuries But for the more cleere understanding of these words we must take notice of a three-fold Creed or Confession of Faith written by Athanasius 1. A Synodicall Epistle written to the Emperour Jovianus by Athanasius and the other Bishops of his Patriarchate assembled at Alexandria in the name of Egypt Thebais and Lybia wherein they confirme and set downe the Nicene Creed with a premised explication of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See for this Theod. lib. 4 cap. 3. and Niceph. lib. 10. cap. 42. About the same time a Synod of Bishops assembled at Antioch under Meletius the Patriarch of that See send the like Epistle unto the Emperour prefixing also the Explication of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and subjoyning the Nicene Creed For which see Soc. lib. 3. cap. 21. and Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 4. 2. His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Exposition of the Faith which we find in his Workes distinct both from the Nicene and his own Creed It seemes a larger Paraphrase or Explication of the Nicene Creed or of his own 3. His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confession Creed or Symbole which now commonly goes under his name and is usually Printed with his other Workes This is that which I conceive to be understood in Greg. Nazianzens Oration and that for these Reasons First because it appears by Nazianzen that it was distinct from the Nicene Creed whereof Osius not Athanasius was the Composer as will appeare by the next Appendix And Athanasius his own workes shew that it was diverse from his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is but a Paraphrase on the Nicene and not sent to any Emperour or received by the Westerne Church as this is witnessed to be Nor can any man shew a Third Creed or Confession of Faith ascribed to Athanasius besides that which now bears his name It is That therefore and none other Secondly Nazianzen heere tels us that both the East and West honoured this Creed for which no better reason can be assigned then that which agrees to this Creed of Athanasius which was twise written first in the West for the satisfaction of Julius Bishop of Rome after that in the East for the Emperour Jovianus his satisfaction which can be affirmed of no other Creed but this Thirdly This Creed commended so much by Nazianzen is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Confession of Faith to which
none other as the Confession or Creed of Athanasius whose judgment ought to prevaile with us above the the rashnesse of some Novellists who have questioned both the Authority the Author But because this Recrimination of Sabellianisme is but obscurely set downe in the writers of that Age and utterly denyed by some of ours I shall endeavour in a few worrdes to clear it First It was the custome of that Age that when any was advanced to a Bishoprick but more espepecially to a Patriarchall See such as Alxandria was whereof Athanasius was Bishop he sent about his Literae Formatae or Encyclicae wherein he testifyed his Faith unto the Christian world and his communion with the Catholick Bishops and this was in use whether the new Bishop were suspected of heresy or not Now there was far greater Cause for this in the case of Athanasius when he appealed to Iulius Bishop of Rome as the most Eminent Patriarch of the Church and one not engaged in the quarrell between him and the Eusebians For it had litle stood with the gravity impartiall uprightnesse of such a Judge to have presently with an overforward affection received a man into his Communion laden with so many and so heavy Accusations before he had given an Account of his Beliefe which that it was the custome then observed and particularly in the case of Athanasius and his fellowes is plainly set downe by Sozomen lib. 3. cap. 7. where having premised that Athanasius and three other Bishops being thrust out by the Arian faction fled unto Julius for succour he subjoynes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is The Bishop of Rome having learned the crimes objected against each of them after that he found them all agreeing in the Doctrine of the Nicene Councell he received them into his Communion as persons of the same judgement with himselfe Secondly Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra who was the chiefe of those three Bishops that were thrust out by the Arian faction and fled to Rome with Athanasius having formerly accused the Eusebians of the Arian Heresy and convicted them in the Nicene Councell was himselfe also scandalized with the crosse imputation of Sabellianisme whereupon he freely made an Orthodox Confession of his Faith at Rome such as the Synod lately held at Sardica had imbraced Now that Athanasius who was principally hated by the Eusebians had the charge of Heresy recriminated also upon him appears by a passage of the same Julius in his Letter to the Easterne Bishops then Assembled at Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now as concerning Marcellus saith he seeing ye have wrote touching him also as of one who thinkes impiously of or against Christ where the particle Also necessarily implies that the Orientall Bishops had accused the rest of the same crime and who but Athanasius as the principall of the Accused See the place in Athan. Apolog. 2. pag. 548. Edit Comm. And his Epistle ad Solitarios two leaves from the beginning Epiphanius also in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Her 72. tels us that this Marcellus being accused by the Arians of Sabellianisme to Iulius Bishop of Rome voluntarily came to Rome and having long but in vaine there expected the appearance of his Adversaries upon his departure left an Epistle with Iulius wherein he sets downe a Confession of his Faith His case is just parallell to that of Athanasius who was accused of the same Heresy as Epiphanius there witnesseth and in like manner cleared himselfe Thirdly this imputation of Sabellianisme was so pertinaciously urged upon Athanasius by his Arian persecutors that Liberius successor to Julius in the Romane See was constrained to send a short Epistle to him for farther satisfaction wherein having set downe his own Faith concerning the Trinity he addes by way of Antithesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherefore I condemne the opinions of Sabellius and Arius and all the forementioned Heresies to everlasting punishment according to the voyce of our Saviour Then he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou then agreest with mee Brother Athanasius in this Confession which is the only true Faith received in the holy Catholick and Apostolick Church as in the presence of God and his Christ write unto me thy consent agreement therin with me that so I may be ascertained thereof and without scruple performe thy commands This Epistle of Liberius with the rescript of Athanasius we find extant in the first Tome of Athanasius his workes The same Athanasius in his forecited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or exposition of the Faith vindicates himselfe from Sabellianisme in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is We neither make the Father and the Sonne the same Person as the Sabellians doe in this destroying the relation of the Sonne neither doe we attribute to the Father that passible Body which the Sonne tooke on him for the Salvation of the whole world Fourthly Sulpitius Severus lib. 20 hist Tels us that Athanasius was condemn'd of Sabellianisme in a certain Councell by the Arians Adde hereunto that Arius himselfe in his Disputation before Probus the Judge taxeth Athanasius in these words somtimes saith he he makes three appeare One saying But these three are one God then I know not by what strang mixtion he makes them Triforms triple saying And this one God is the Trinity So Geneb To prevent such mistakes and cavils Athanasius hath a chapter in his Workes entitled Quod non tres Dii that there are not three Gods Thirdly As to my last Query in what Language this Creed of Athanasius was originally written I Answer it is most probable that Athanasius first wrote it in Latine as being a Language which he well vnderstood although some have been pleased to deny it and the Creed being exhibited unto Julius Bishop of Rome in a Synod of Latine Bishops My reasons are these First The Latine edition of this Creed is the same in all Copies whereas the Greek Copies vary as Translations use to doe Genebrard in his third booke De Trinitate hath set downe three severall versions there of out of the Latine into the Greeke namely Vulgatam Dionysianam Constantinopolitanam The first is that which is commonly Printed The last is that which the Church of Constantinâ—ple useth The middlemost is so called from Dionysius a Grecian Bishop entitled Zienensis Firmiensis who gave the foreeited Manuscript of the Procession to Lazarus Bayffius the Booke was fairly written by the Learned Nic. Sophianus And to these three which are set downe and compared by Genebrard we may adde a fourth found in an Horologium of Greeke hymnes composed by Thechara a Monke of Constantinople and is set downe by the R. Armach in his Tract de Symb. which besides that it hath much inserted heere and there by the Greeke Translator very much differs in the residue from all the three former as they also doe from each other Secondly As the Bishop of Rome wrote in Latine to the Bishops of the East
Substance with the Father by admitting of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Constantinopolitan Fathers were 150 in number who all assented to this Creed And Damasus Bishop of Rome confirmed it for the westrne Church with the suffrages of his fellow Bishops although not present at Canstantinople either in his Person or by Proctor The Nicene Councell was called against Arius who denyed the Sonne to be Coessentiall and Coeternall with the Father Those Fathers therefore enlarged the second Article of the Creed touching the eternall Divinity of the Sonne of God The Councell of Constantinople was called against Macedonius who denyed the Divinity of the holy Ghost whence those Fathers enlarged the eight Article of the Creed which concernes the Third Person of the Trinity As for the Forme of words or Frame of this Creed it had in the first Place Hosius Bishop of Corduba for the Composer who sate in the Councell of Nice as President or Moderator by the appointment of the Emperour Constantine the Great and therefore subscribed in the first Place before Vitus and Vincentius who were the Bishop of Romes Legats as we may see in Binius Conc. Tom. 1. The Composing of this Creed by Hosius we have witnessed by Baronius A. 325 who took it out of the Epist of Athan. ad Solitarios who was present at the Councell the words of Baron are these Consentientibus Catholicis Episc Arianis pariter assentientibus concepta est Catholicae Fidei formula quâ omnia Arianae haeresis capita truncarentur fuit autem ejus formandae Osius imprimis Architectus sapientissimus de quo haec S. Athanasius cum scribit in Arianos ex verbis eorum in eundem Osium apud Constantium conclamantium Hic princeps est Synodorum siquid scribit ubique auditur hic formulam Fidei in Nicenâ Synodo concepit Arianos ubique pro haereticis traduxit that is By the joynt consent of the Catholick Bishops the Arians also agreeing to it there was Composed a Forme of Catholick Beliefe He that Composed it was Osius that most wise Master-builder concerning whom S. Athanasius in his workes against the Arians thus writeth rehearsing their very wordes wherein they cryed out upon him before the Emperour Constantius This is the chiefe President of Synods who if he write ought is hearkned to every where he composed the Forme of Beliefe in the Nicene Synod and hath traduced the Arians every where for Hereticks But the Additionall Particles or supplement of this Creed was made by Gregory Nyssen an eminent Father in the first Constantinopolitan Councell who perfected and compleated the Forme as we now have it So Nicephorus informes us Eccles Hist lib. 12. cap. 13. From that time forward it was held for one entire Creed and promiscuously called by succeeding Ages sometimes the Nicene sometimes the Constantinopolitan Creed It was caled lthe Nicene for the honour of that Councell which was the first Oecumenicall and the Foundation of all the Rest that followed as also because it was conteined virtually and implicitly in the shorter Creed of that Councell So Marcus Bishop of Ephesus in the Synod of Ferrara Sess 5. Conc. Tom. 4. And it was called the Constantinopolitan Creed because finished in that Councell and brought to that perfection wherein we now see it This Creed according as it was framed in the Nicene Synod far shorter than now we have it we may see in these following Authors viz. Athan. Epist ad Iovianum Conc. Tom. 1. pag. 399. Cod. Can. Eccl. Afric p. 19. Ruff. Eccl. Hist lib. 1. cap. 6. Theod. lib. 1. Hist cap. 12. Socr. lib. 1. c. 5. Cass trip hist lib. 1. cap. 17 Niceph. lib. 1. cap. 12. We have already Englished it in the Twelfth Chapter of the precedent Discourse on the Apostles Creed Now I shall set downe the Originall Greeke which runns thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After this the Fathers of the Constantinopolitan Councell enlarged this Forme partly by adding some explicatory particles and partly by resuming out of the Apostles Creed those Articles wherein it was defective The Explicatory particles were chiefly touching the Holy Ghost The Articles taken out of the Apostles Creed were those which follow the Article of the Holy Ghost Notwithstanding they omitted three passages thereof which were virtually inclosed in the rest that preceded or followed viz. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of God because it followes very God of very God 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which are in Heaven and which are in earth because there went before by whom all things were made 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Of the substance of the Father because they thought it sufficiently comprehended in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius tells us in his Anchoratus viz. A person of one and the same individuall substance with the Father whence the Orthodoxe Christians were differenced from the Arians by the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is of Homoousians or of those who worshipt the Sonne of God under this Title by professing him of the same substance with the Father So then the entire forme thereof as the Westerne Churches now read it by resuming that passage God of God out of the first Nicene forme and adding the word Filioque that is and from the Sonne in the Procession of the Holy Ghost runnes thus the additionall particles being distinguished from the rest by this marke which encloseth them I Believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the only-begotten Sonne of God begotten of his Father before all Worlds God of God light of light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father by whom all Things were made 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 and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried and the third day he rose againe according to the Scriptures and ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of the Father and he shall come againe with Glory to judge both the quick and the dead whose Kingdome shall have none end And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and Giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne who together with the Father and the Sonne is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets And I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church I acknowledge one Baptisme for the remission of sinnes and I look for the Resurrection of the Dead and the life of the World to come That Gregory Nyssen by order of the Second generall Councell held at Constantinople added the particles here inserted is witnessed as I said by Nicephorus Callistus in hist Eccles lib. 12. cap.
and so rather the Mouth than the Head of the Apostles but there appears no Primacy of order or Jurisdiction over his fellow-Apostles But suppose we should grant said they that Peter had such an unerring paramount privilege yet this might well be personall and annext to his Apostleship not derivable to any Episcopall successour and if derivable why should the Bishop of Rome rather arrogate it to himselfe than the Bishop of Antioch in which City S. Peter first sate Or the Bishop of Alexandria a See instituted by the same Apostle under S. Marke before he ever appointed any Bishop at Rome As for the Grounding of this priviledge on S. Peters martyrdome at Rome where appears any such Dependance or legacy bequeathed by S. Peter that his Infallibility and Supremacy should be annexed to that Chaire alone as to the place of his Death and Buriall 'T is true they confest that the Bishop of Rome was of old accounted Primae Sedis Episcopus The Bishop of the Principall See but withall they said that there was a vast difference between Primacy and Power for if by this pretence he should challenge any Authority or Jurisdiction over the Bishop of Constantinople the Second See Why should not he of Constantinople likewise claime the same Power over the Bishop of Alexandria which is the third And so in like manner Alexandria over Antioch Antioch over Ierusalem An opinion never heard of or entertained in the Church of God The Bishop of Rome therefore had this primacy not by divine right but by humane or Ecclesiasticall that is not from any Apostolicall Priviledge derived from S. Peter but by the graunt of Emperours and Decrees of Councells It was fit that one Bishop should be chiefe for order sake this Honour was given to the Bishop of Rome for the Dignity of his Seat Rome beeing the Head of the Roman Empire For which cause Alexandria had of old the Second place as beeing Praefectura Augustalis the Peculiar of the Romane Emperour so ennobled by Augustus Caesar Antioch the third as the Metropolis of Syria and the Eastern Countryes adjoyning whereas if the preeminency of Sees had been derived from S. Peter the City of Antioch where he sate seven years in person should have beene preferd before Alexandria whether he only sent an other viz S. Marke and appointed him for the first Bishop And for this cause Caesarea too was made the Metropoliticall See of Palestine because it was the seat of the Roman Governor untill the Fathers of the Nicene Councel in honour of Jerusalem where S. James was made the first Bishop of the Christian world and whence the Gospell spread into the whole earth gave the Bishop therof a Patriarchall title that rather of dignity thē Authority for thus runs the seventh Canon of that Councell Quoniam mos antiquus obtinuit vetusta Traditio ut Aeliae id est Hierosolimorum Episcopo honor Deferatur habeat consequenter honorem manente tamen Metropolitanae Civitatis Caesareae propriâ Dignitate that is Because from an old Custome and Tradition honuor hath been given to the Bishop of Aelia that is of Jerusalem let him have Honour accordingly provided that the Dignity of the metropolitan City Cesarea remaine entire For the same cause also when Constantinople was reedifyed made the seat of the Empire and called new Rome by Constantine the Great it was thought fit by the Emperours and succeeding Councells that the Bishop of Alexandria should no longer have the Second but the third Place Constantinople now succeeding in that honour for thus runs the fift Canon of the first Councell of Constantinople Constantinopolitanae Civitatis Episcopum habere oportet Primatus honorem post Romanum Episcopum propter quod sit nova Roma that is The Bishop of Constantinople ought to have the next place of honour after the Bishop of Rome because his City is new Rome And because there could not be two Sedes primae two first or chief Sees the same Councell ordeined that the Bishop of Constantinople should be styled the second Patriarch but in all other things should be of equall Dignity and Authority with the Bishop of Rome So in all the rest whosoever will please to compare the Prelates Sees with the Notitia Imperii shall find that the Church still accommodated her Hierarchy of Mertropolitās Archbishops Bishops unto the state of the Empire the distinction of Provinces and the Dignity of the Cityes according to that ancient Rule Ecclesia est in Republicâ non Respublica in Ecclesiâ The Church is in the Commonwealth not the Common-wealth in the Church 2. The second cause of the Schisme was the Deposition and Excomunication of the Patriarch Photius and of the other Prelats and Abbots his adherents in a great Synod at Constantinople held under the Emperour Basiliu◠and the Patriarch Ignatius in the yeare 869 which businesse was mainly urged and furthered by two Bishops of Rome successively viz. Nicolas the first and Adrian the second 3. The third cause was the Rash and Inconsiderate Zeale of the said Patriarch Photius who first dared to accuse the Romane Church of Heresy because it held that the holy Ghost proceeded from the Sonne as well as from the Father whereas in all former disputes between the Greeks and the Latines whether by word or writing neither party accused his Adversary of Heresy for holding either opinion Yea the Latines Demōstrated that some of the Greeke Fathers spake as they did neither could the Greekes deny it And since this precipitate Censure of Photius not a few of the Romane Divines have in requitall accused the Greeke Church of the same Crime for holding the Contrary 4. The fourth cause was the contention about the Primacy between the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople For Iohn surnamed Iejunator and Cyriacus his successour Patriarchs of Constantinople were very earnest with the emperour Mauritius to obteine the Title Authority of Oecumenicall Patriarchs thereby challenging a Superiority over the Bishops of the whole Christian World from the Dignity of their City which was then the Head of the Romane Empire that of the West being utterly broken and Rome the Ancient Seate thereof for that Cause loosing its former Dignity Now against these their endeavours Gregory the great then Bishop of Rome publickly opposed himselfe and taxed them in expresse Termes of Antichristian ambition saying withall that Dato uni Episcopi universalis Titulo reliquos Sacerdotes honore debito privari The giving of the Title of Universall Bishop unto one doth deprive the other Bishops of their due Honour Yet with in lesse than two years after his Death Boniface the Third his Successour abtained the same Title of the Emperour Phocas which Gregory had so much Decried But the Greeke Prelates would never yeeld to it 5. The fift cause was the busines of Images which brake out after this contention about the Primacy For the Emperour Leo Isaurus and his sonne Constantinus Copronymus