THE CREED.

1. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth;

2. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, 3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary;

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified dead and buried;

5. He descended into Hell; the third day he rose again from the dead;

6. He ascended into Heaven; and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost;

9. The Holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints;

10. The Forgiveness of sins;

11. The Resurrection of the body;

12. And the Life everlasting.

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CHAPTER I.

ARTICLE I.

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth."

THE first word 'CREDO, I believe, gives a denomination to the whole Confession of Faith, thence commonly called the Creed, and this same word is understood to be virtually prefixed to the head of every article, and to every single truth contained in each article, ex. gra. "I believe in God the Father Almighty;" id est I believe in God;-I believe that God to be a Father;-I believe that Father to be Almighty, &c. Belief is an assent to what is credible, as credible. Assent is that act of the understanding, by which it receives, acknowledges, and embraces any truth.

All belief is assent; but all assent is not faith ; as it may be the result of knowledge.

Things apparent to sense or understanding are not properly believed, but known.

Things, though not apparent in themselves, may

appear true from their necessary connection with something already known; and the comprehension of these is not faith, but science. Things appearing true by their external relations to other known truths, and yet having some uncertainty in them, are not matters of faith, but opinion. But when a thing is neither apparent to sense, nor evident to the understanding, nor to be collected by rational deduction or argument; and yet moves us to assent to it by virtue of the testimony given to it ;—this assent is properly belief or faith.

There are two kinds of testimony, human and divine; therefore there are two kinds of faith.Human faith is a belief of what is credible upon the testimony of man ;-Divine faith is a belief of what is credible upon the testimony of God. This last is the highest kind of faith, being grounded upon God's perfections; being infinitely wise, he cannot be deceived; being infinitely good, he cannot deceive. Upon these two immoveable pillars stands the authority of God's testimony.

Revelation is of two kinds-immediate and mediate. By the first, God himself spake to the Prophets; by the second, in the Prophets, and by them

to us.

Immediate Revelation must have been accompanied by some plain and sure proofs of God being

the author; otherwise (ex. gra.) it is absurd to suppose that Abraham would have slain his son.

Mediate Revelation is believed by the miracles accompanying it; ex. gra. "When the Israelites saw in Moses' hand God's omnipotency, they could not suspect in his tongue God's veracity." Hence, though the grounds of faith are (both in those who believe from immediate, and those who believe from mediate revelation) the same, viz. the testimony of God; yet the mode of assent is different.

Prophets were instruments of Divine Revelation: the words, or rather the ideas and subjects were God's, but the articulation was theirs. That which they delivered, they believed upon the immediate testimony of God; and the rest of the believers assented to it upon the same testimony mediate through their hands.

God, who spake in times past to the prophets, and thus propounded to them the object of faith; has in these last days spoken to us by his Son; and hath thus enlarged the object of faith, which is now the faith of Jesus. His apostles, fully convinced that he knew all things, and came forth from God, believed his words as the immediate testimony of God.

Besides this, they received the Spirit of Truth, and had frequent revelations, so that each one of

them might well reiterate the expression of St. Paul: "I know whom I have believed." And thus the Apostles' faith, equally with that of Moses and the Prophets, was grounded upon the immediate revelation of God.

As the Israelites believed Moses from his miracles, so Christian converts believed in consequence of the miracles of the Apostles; and thus their faith in each case rested ultimately upon the testimony of God, immediately upon the testimony of the prophets and apostles. Thus the faith of the primitive Christians was an assent unto the word, as credible upon the testimony of God, delivered to them by testimony apostolical.

Though Moses was not always with the Israelites, and therefore his miracles could not bind the faith of subsequent ages; yet by foretelling the prophets who should be raised up afterwards, he puts an obligation upon them to believe their prophecies: and thus the Israelites believed Moses in all ages; while he was living by believing his words, and after his death by believing his writings.

In like manner it is with us. As the Israelites believed Moses, the mediator, and the subsequent prophets, and when they were all dead, continued to believe their writings; so when Christ came, the apostles believed the writings of Moses, and the