The article of remission of sins was also originally in the apostolical creed, because it always appears to have been one principal point of their catechetical institutions. And therefore the opinion of the learned author of the Critical History, that it was only in some creeds, but not in all, till the rise of the Novatian heresy, is also to be rejected; because it appears from Cyprian, that it was in the creed, which the Novatians themselves made use of in baptism. The articles of the resurrection of the dead, and life everlasting, are also concluded to have been in the Apostles' creed, if not from the very first, yet at least when St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Hebrews, because he there mentions the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, among the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. Heb. vi. 2. The article of the Church, Dr. Grabe thinks, was not originally in the creed, but added in the latter end of the first century, or beginning of the second, upon occasion of heretics and schismatics separating from the Church. At least it appears from Tertullian's book, De Baptismo, that the profession of it was required in his time, of catechumens at their baptism. For he says, "after they had testified their faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they also added the Church, because where those three were, there was the Church, and it was the body of the three. The article of the communion of saints, he readily acknowledges, was never in any creed before the fourth century. And that, concerning the descent into hell, was not originally in the creed, but added upon occasion of heretics in after ages. But the precise time of its addition is not exactly agreed upon, between the author of the Critical History and Dr. Grabe. The former, who is allowed to have explained the genuine sense of this article with as great exactness as the most consummate divine, supposes it to have been added against the Arians and Apollinarians, who denied the soul or spirit of Christ, because the Fathers argued 'Tertul. de Bap. cap. 6. Cùm sub tribus et testatio fidei et sponsio salutis pignorentur, necessariò adjicitur ecclesiæ mentio; quoniam ubi tres, id est, Pater, Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus, ibi ecclesia, quæ trium corpus est. thus against them: Christ descended into hell either in his divinity or his soul, or his body; but it is absurd to ascribe the descent into hell either to his divinity or his body, and therefore it must be his soul that descended; which proves the reality of his soul. But Dr. Grabe thinks this article was of earlier date, because it is to be found in some of the Arian creeds themselves, and others, more ancient than the Apollinarians: and that, if it had been inserted against the Apollinarian doctrine, it would not have been barely said, "He descended into hell," but rather, "he descended by his soul into hell," which had been directly against that heresy. Therefore he rather supposes it to have been added to the creed in opposition to the Valentinians and Marcionites, who according to the account given by Irenæus1 and Tertullian pretended, that the souls of all that died of their sects went immediately to heaven; when yet Christ himself went into the state and place of separate souls for three days before his resurrection and ascension. Upon the whole matter, Dr. Grabe concludes, that all the articles of the creed, except these three, the communion of saints, the Church, and the descent of Christ into hell, were solemnly professed by the first Christians in their confessions of faith in the Apostles' days, by their authority, or at least their approbation: for which reason the creed, as to those parts of it, may properly be called apostolical. And it could hardly be, that all Churches in the world should so unanimously agree in the common confession of so many articles of it, unless it had proceeded from some such authority as they all acknowledged. But the reason, why the confessions of particular Churches differed in words and phrases, he thinks was from hence, that the creed, which the Apostles delivered, was not written with paper and ink, but "in the fleshly tables of the heart," as St. Jerom words it. Whence every Church was at liberty to express their sense in their own terms. But he will not undertake to vindicate the common tradition of Ruffinus, that it was made by joint consent of all the Apostles, when they were about to sepa Iren. lib. v. c. 31. 2 Tertul. de Animâ. c. 55. 8 Hieron. rate from one another; and much less, that every one of the twelve Apostles cast in his symbol to complete the number of twelve articles, as the other story is told by the author under the name of St. Austin, which he thinks is not in the least to be regarded. I have been a little more particular in representing the sense of this great man upon this point, both because his account of the original of the several articles of the Creed seems to be most exact, and because the discourse, where he delivers his opinion, may not yet be fallen into the hands ef every ordinary reader. CHAP. IV. A Collection of several ancient Forms of the Creed out of the primitive Records of the Church. SECT. 1.-The Fragments of the Creed in Irenæus. I SHALL now in the next place present the reader with several of the ancient forms of the Creed, as we find them preserved in the most ancient writers and the most authentic primitive records of the Church. The use of these will be, not only to illustrate and confirm what has been said in the last Chapter, but also to declare what was the ancient faith of the Church, and show the vanity of modern heretics, especially the Arians, who pretend that the doctrine of our Saviour's divinity was no necessary article of faith before the council of Nice. Bp. Usher, in his curious tract De Symbolo Romano, has already collected a great many of these ancient forms, but because that piece is written in Latin, and become very scarce, and some things more may be added to it, I will here oblige the English reader with a new account of them, beginning with the fragments of the Creed, which we have in Irenæus, Origen, Cyprian, Tertullian, and other private writers, which Bp. Usher gives no account of. Some fancy the Creed may be found in the writings of Ignatius, Clemens Romanus, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr; but Bp. Pearson' has rightly observed, that these writers, however they may incidentally 'Pearson's Exposition of the Creed, Article 5. in Initio. VOL. III. F mention some articles of faith, do not formally deliver any rule of faith used in their own times. The first, that speaks of this, is Irenæus, who calls it the "unalterable canon' or rule of truth, which every man received at his baptism;" and he immediately declares what it was in these words:* "The Church, though it be dispersed over all the world from one end of the earth to the other, received from the Apostles and their disciples, the belief in one God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and sea, and all things in them: and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was incarnate for our salvation and in the Holy Ghost, who preached by the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advent, and nativity of a virgin, and passion, and resurrection from the dead, and bodily ascension of the flesh of his beloved Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord, into heaven, and his coming again from heaven in the glory of the Father, to recapitulate all things, and raise the flesh of all mankind; that according to the will of the invisible Father every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in the earth; and things under the earth, to Jesus Christ, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King; and that every tongue should confess to him and that He may exercise just judgment upon all, and send spiritual wickednesses, and the transgressing and apostate angels, with all ungodly, unrighteous, lawless and blaspheming men into everlasting fire; but grant life to all righteous and holy men, that keep his commandments and persevere in his love, some from the beginning, others after repentance, on whom he confers immortality, and invests them with eternal glory." This faith, he says, was the same in all the world; men professed it with one heart and one soul: for though there were different dialects in the world, yet the power of the faith was one and the same. The Churches in Germany had no other faith or tradition than those in Iberia or Spain, or those among the Celta, that is, France, or in the East, or in Egypt, or in Libya, or in the middle parts of the world, by which he means Jerusalem and the adjacent Churches, which were reckoned to be in the midst of the earth. But as one and the same Sun enlightened all the world; so the preaching of this truth shined all over, 2 Ibid. c. 2. p. 45. 1 Iren. lib. i. c. 1. p. 44. 9 Ibid. lib. i. c. 3. and enlightened all men that were willing to come to the knowledge of truth. Nor did the most eloquent ruler of the Church say any more than this; (for no one was above his master) nor the weakest diminish any thing of this tradition: for the faith being one and the same, he that said most of it could not enlarge it, nor he that said least take any thing from it. The reader will easily perceive, that Irenæus by this one faith did not mean the express form of words now used in the Apostles' Creed; for his words differ much in expression from that, though in sense and substance it be the same faith, and that which was then preached and taught over all the Churches. SECT. 2.-The Creed of Origen. There is another such form of apostolical doctrine collected by Origen in his books of Christian Principles,' where he thus delivers the rule of faith: "The things which are manifestly handed down by the apostolical preaching, are these; First, that there is one God, who created and made all things, and caused the whole universe to exist out of nothing; the God of all the just that ever were from the first creation and foundation of all; the God of Adam, 1 Origen. Пɛpì'Apxūv, in Præfat. tom.i. p. 665. Species verò eorum, quæ per prædicationem apostolicam manifestè traduntur, istæ sunt. Primo, quod unus Deus est, qui omnia creavit atque composuit, quique ex nullis fecit esse universa; Deus à primâ creaturâ et conditione mundi omnium Justorum, Deus Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noe, Sem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, duodecim Patriarcharum, Moysi, et Prophetarum. Et quod hic Deus in novissimis diebus, sicut per prophetas suos ante promiserat, misit Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, primo quidem vocaturum Israel, secundo etiam Gentes post perfidiam populi Israel. Hic Deus justus et bonus, Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Legem et Prophetas et Evangelia dedit, qui et Apostolorum Deus est, et Veteris et Novi Testamenti. Tum deinde quia Jesus Christus ipse qui venit, ante omnem creaturam natus ex Patre est: qui cùm in omnium conditione Patri ministrâsset (per ipsum enim omnia facta sunt) novissimis temporibus seipsum exinaniens homo factus est: incarnatus est cùm Deus esset, et homo mansit quod Deus erat. Corpus assumpsit nostro corpori simile, eo solo differens quod natum ex virgine de Spiritu Sancto est. Et quoniam hic Jesus Christus natus, et passus est in veritate et non per imaginem communem hanc mortem, verè mortuus est; verè enim à mortuis resurrexit, et post resurrectionem conversatus cum discipulis suis, assumptus est. Tum deinde honore ac dignitate Patri et Filio sociatum tradiderunt Spiritum Sanctum, &c. |