holy writ, with all that candour, moderation, and gentleness, and with all that mildness towards persons of opposite sentiments, which it was possible for me to manifest. Let the pious, 'judicious, and impartial reader judge; and let him unite with me in prayer to God, that his good Spirit may lead us in the paths of righteousness and truth.

DISSERTATION I.

ON THE AUTHORS, AND THE AUTHORITY,
OF THE APOSTLES' CREED.

1. As it is my design to illustrate, in a course of academical Dissertations, the doctrine which is briefly comprised in the Apostles' Creed,1 the subject seems to require that I should begin with some account of the Authors, and the Authority of that Creed. This branch of theological learning, however, has already been amply discussed by James Usher, Gisbert Voetius, Gerard John Vossius, and John Henry Heidegger, all of them men of great eminence and most extensive reading, who may be justly thought to have superseded the necessity of much labour on the part of their successors. To me, at least, nothing remains, but to exhibit, in this discourse, for the benefit of those who shall favour me with their attention, a concise abridgment of what these writers have stated at large, and have confirmed by luminous and satisfactory testimonies from all antiquity.

11. That the Apostles are the real Authors of the Creed which commonly bears their name, is in general

Sce NOTE I.

maintained by the Doctors of the church of Rome, as so indubitable a fact, that they deem it an instance of the most daring temerity to call it in question. They tell us, that the Apostles, after they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and before they departed from Jerusalem to preach the Gospel in the various regions of the earth, judged a form of sound words requisite both for their own sake, lest they should teach discordant doctrines and become alienated from one another in affection, and for the sake of the church, that she might have an authorized formulary for the instruction of those that were to be baptized;-that they, therefore, composed such a form, consisting of a few simple but comprehensive sentences, and containing a summary of whatever it is necessary to believe with the heart unto righteousness, and to confess with the mouth unto salvation ;—and that this is the origin of the Creed which we now have. At what time, however, this was done, they cannot certainly determine. Some are of opinion that it took place immediately after the effusion of the Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost; while others refer it to the time when, as we are informed in the twelfth chapter of the Acts, Herod Agrippa, (not Antipas, as the celebrated Vossius, in his sixth Thesis, has inadvertently said,) in order to gratify the Jews, stretched forth his hands to persecute the Christians.

III. Another circumstance, too, is added to the story. They say that this formulary was not prepared by any one Apostle, appointed to perform the service in the name of the whole college of Apostles; but that each of them pronounced his own particular article, and that the matter was so adjusted that the number of articles exactly corresponded to the number of Apostles. Thus,

whilst the different articles were dictated by different Apostles, the entire Creed received the stamp of their united approbation.

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IV. That we might remain ignorant of nothing relative to so momentous an affair, Baronius,* the Author of Ecclesiastical Annals, has even informed us, to which of the Apostles we are indebted for each of the articles. Quoting St Augustine, he tells us that this celebrated Father, in his hundred and fifteenth sermon,† wrote as follows. "PETER said, I believe in "God the Father Almighty: JOHN,-Maker of heaven and earth: JAMES,-and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord: ANDREW,-who was conceived "by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: PHI"LIP,-suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, "dead, and buried: THOMAS,-he descended into "hell, the third day he rose again from the dead: "BARTHOLOMEW,-he ascended into heaven, and sit"teth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: "MATTHEW,—from thence he shall come again to "judge the quick and the dead: JAMES, the son of Alpheus,-I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy "catholic Church: SIMON ZELOTES,-the commu"nion of saints, the forgiveness of sins: JUDE, the "brother of James, the resurrection of the body: "and MATTHIAS completed the work, saying,-and "the life everlasting. Amen."

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v. To obviate the charge of credulity to which they manifestly expose themselves by giving credit to such traditions, the Roman Catholic Doctors endeavour to establish all these points by a variety of arguments. Why, say they, in the first place, should this be deno

* Ad An. xliv.

+ De Tempore.

minated the Apostles' Creed by the whole Christian Church, unless the Apostles were its real authors? Secondly, They derive an argument from the term Symbolum, which they suppose to denote a collation, resembling that kind of social feast among the ancients, to which the guests contributed by bringing each his own share. They affirm that this title was given to these articles of faith, because each of the Apostles contributed some undeniable article of the Christian doctrine to this spiritual banquet. To hear their own language; "Symbolum, says Gabriel Biel,† is a word "derived from syn, that is, together, and bolos, a par"ticle or morsel; signifying, so to speak, a collection "of particles; for each of the Apostles furnished his "own particle-his own morsel." Thirdly, they produce a cloud of witnesses from antiquity, on the vast number of whom Genebrard lays a mighty stress. ‡ Nay, if we believe Sixtus of Sienna,§ "All the or"thodox Fathers affirm that the Creed was composed by the Apostles themselves." They avail themselves, in particular, of the testimony of Rufinus, who has treated the history of the compilation of the Creed at great length. Fourthly, They reason from utility, as suggesting, or even demanding, this measure. It was expedient that the Apostles," when about to separate "from each other, should conjunctly frame a rule for directing them in their subsequent preaching of the Gospel; lest, perhaps, when at a distance from "one another, they should teach mankind jarring doc"trines." These are the words of Rufinus. So then,

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Symbolum is the Latin word for Creed. T.

† In distinct. xxiii. quæst. unica art. i. lib. 3.

In iii. de Trinitate.

§ Bibliotheca Sanctæ, Lib. ii.