from the Military oath (sacramentum), by which the Roman soldiers bound themselves to serve their general.' (5) And lastly, Lord King has suggested, that it might have been borrowed from the religious services of the ancient heathens, who gave to those who were initiated into their mysteries, certain signs or marks (symbola), whereby they knew one another, and were distinguished from the rest of the world.2

It is not very easy to decide, which of these five senses may with most propriety be attached to the word. The first is the least probable, inasmuch as the tradition on which it rests appears not to have existed before the 4th century.3

The word Creed,' by which these ancient formularies of faith are designated in English, is derived from the word Credo, with which the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, in the Latin version,

commence.

R

SECTION II. THE APOSTLES' CREED.

UFFINUS mentions a tradition, handed down from ancient times, that, after our Lord's ascension, the Apostles, having received the gift of tongues, and a command to go and preach to all nations, when about to depart from one another, determined to appoint one rule of preaching, that they should not set forth diverse things to their converts. Accordingly, being met together, and inspired by the Holy Ghost, they drew up the Apostles' Creed, contributing to the common stock what each one thought good.* The author of the sermons De Tempore, improperly ascribed to Augustine, tells us that Peter said, I believe in God the Father Almighty; John said, Maker of Heaven and earth; James said, And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; Andrew said, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary;

1 Symbolum cordis signaculum, et nostræ militiæ sacramentum.-Ambros. Lib. III. De velandis Virginibus, apud Suicer.

* Suicer, voc. Lúpẞolov.- Bingham, Bk. x. ch. II. King, On the Creed, pp. 6, 11, &c. Wheatley, Dr. Hey, and others, have adopted King's derivation. Bingham totally rejects it.

3 St. Augustine says, the name was given, quia symbolum inter se faciunt mercatores, quo eorum societas pacto fidei teneatur. Et vestra societas est commercium spiritualium, ut similes sitis ne

Philip said, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; Thomas said, He descended into Hell, the third day He rose again from the dead; Bartholomew said, He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; Matthew said, From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead; James the son of Alphæus said, I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church; Simon Zelotes said, The Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of Sins; Jude the brother of James said, The Resurrection of the Flesh; Matthias concluded with, The Life Everlasting.'

The principal objections to the truth of these traditions, which are fatal to the last, and nearly fatal to the other, are these:

First, that Ruffinus himself tells us, that the article of the descent into hell was not in the Roman (i.e. the Apostles'), nor in the Eastern Creeds. It has been proved by Archbishop Ussher and Bishop Pearson, that this statement is true; and also, that two other articles, the Communion of Saints,' and 'the Life Everlasting,' were wanting in the more ancient Creeds.

Secondly, the formation and existence of the Creed is not mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, nor in any of the more ancient fathers or Councils; which is most extraordinary, if any such formulary was known to have existed, a formulary, which would have had the full authority of Scripture itself, and would therefore, probably, have been continually appealed to, especially in Councils, where new confessions of faith were composed.

Thirdly, it is plain, that the ancient Creeds, though alike in substance, were not alike in words; which could never have been the case, if one authoritative form had been handed down from the Apostles.1

Fourthly, we may add to this, that the ancients scrupulously avoided committing the Creed to writing; and it is hardly probable, if there was in the Church a deposit so precious as a Creed drawn up by the Apostles, that it would have been left to the uncertainty of oral tradition, or that, if it were so left, it would have been preserved in its perfect integrity.

But though this Creed was not drawn up by the Apostles themselves, it may well be called Apostolic, both as containing the doctrines taught by the Apostles, and as being in substance the same as was used in the Church from the times of the Apostles themselves. This will appear to any one, who will compare it with

1 See Suicer, 8. v. Zúμßoλov; King,

p. 26; Bingham, Bk. x. ch. III. § 5.

2 See Aug. Opera, Tom. v. p. 938; see also King, p. 31.

the various ancient forms, preserved in the works of the most ancient fathers, and which may be seen in Bingham, Wall, and other well-known writers referred to.'

It was, no doubt, 'the work neither of one man nor of one day;' yet it is probable, that the Apostles themselves used a form in the main agreeing with the Creed as we now have it; except that the articles concerning the descent into hell, the communion of saints, and the life everlasting, were most likely of later origin. The form indeed was never committed to writing, but, being very short, was easily retained in the memory, and taught to the Catechumens, to be repeated by them at their baptism. It differed in different Churches in some verbal particulars, and was reduced to more regular form, owing to the necessity of guarding against particular errors. The form most nearly corresponding to that now called the Apostles' Creed, was the Creed of the Church of Rome; though even that Creed lacked the three clauses mentioned above. And it is an opinion, not without great probability, that the reason why it was called the Apostles' Creed, was that the Church of Rome, being the only Church in the West, which could undeniably claim an Apostle for its founder, its see was called the Apostolic See, and hence its Creed was called the Apostolic Creed.❜

It is hardly necessary here to enter into any exposition or proof from Scripture of the different clauses of the Apostles' Creed. Most of them occur in the Articles of the Church of England. The few, which are not expressed in them, may be more profitably considered in regular treatises on the Creed, than in a necessarily brief exposition of the Articles.

SECTION III.-THE NICENE CREED.

WHEN the Council of Nice met, A.D. 325, summoned by the authority of the Emperor Constantine, Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine, recited to the assembled fathers the Creed, which he professed to have received from the Bishops which were before him, into which he had been baptized, even as he had

1 Suicer, Bingham, and Wall, as above; Pearson at the head of every Article in his Exposition of the Creed.

2 Bingham, Bk. x. ch. III. § 12.

3 Wall, On Infant Baptism, Part 11. ch. IX. p. 472. Oxford, 1835.

learned from the Scriptures, and such as in his episcopate he had believed and taught. The form of it was as follows:

'We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, the only-begotten Son, begotten before every creature (IIрwτóтоkov Táone Krioewe, Col. i. 15); begotten of the Father before all worlds, by whom all things were made; who for our salvation was made flesh, and conversed among men, and suffered, and rose again the third day, and ascended to the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead. And we believe in the Holy Ghost.'

should seem, that this But Arius himself, soon

This confession of faith both Constantine and the assembled bishops unanimously received; and it would have been all that was required. after the Council, A.D. 328, delivered a Creed to the Emperor, which was unobjectionable if viewed by itself, but which studiously omitted anything, which might have led him either to express or to abjure his most heretical opinions ;' viz., that there was a time when the Son of God was not, that He was made out of nothing, and that He was not of one substance with the Father. This shows that there was an absolute necessity that the Council should word its Confession of faith not only so as to express the belief of sound Christians, but also so as to guard against the errors of the Arians. Accordingly, the symbol set forth by the Council was in these words :

'We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father; 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, both things in Heaven and things in earth; who, for us men and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate, and was made man: He suffered, and rose again the third day; and ascended into Heaven:

1 Arius' Creed runs thus :

'We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His Son our Lord, begotten of Him before all ages, God the Word, by whom all things were made that are in Heaven and that are in earth; who descended, and was incarnate, and suffered, and rose again, and ascended into Heaven, and shall come

again to judge the quick and the dead: and in the Holy Ghost: and in the resurrection of the flesh, and in the life of the world to come, and in the kingdom of Heaven; And in one Catholic Church of God, from one end of the earth to the other.'-Socr. H. E. Lib. I. c. 26; Suicer, voc. Lúpẞolov; Bingham, Bk. X. ch. IV. § 10; Wall, Part IV. ch. IX. 453.

and shall come again to judge the quick and the dead. the Holy Ghost.

And in

'And those who say, that there was a time when He was not; or that before He was begotten, He was not; or that He was made out of nothing; or who say that the Son of God is of any other substance, or that He is changeable or unstable, these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes."

The Nicene Creed thus set forth, and the decrees of the Council against Arius, were received by the whole Church throughout the world, and thus marked by the stamp of Catholicity. Athanasius, in A.D. 363, informs us, that all the Churches in the world, whether in Europe, Asia, or Africa, approved of the Nicene faith, except a few persons who followed Arius.2

It appears to many, that this Creed of the Council of Nice was but an abridgment of the Creed commonly used in many parts of the Church, and that the reason, why it extended no further than to the article, I believe in the Holy Ghost,' was, because it was intended to lay a stress on those Articles concerning our Lord, to which the heresy of Arius was opposed. Epiphanius, who wrote his Anchorate some time before the Council of Constantinople, says that every catechumen repeated at his baptism, from the time of the Council of Nice to the tenth year of Valentinian and Valens, A.D. 373, a Creed in the following words :—

'We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible: and in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, that is, of the substance of His Father, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both things in Heaven and things on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate: He suffered and was buried; and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, aud ascended into Heaven; and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end.

1 The Greek may be seen in Routh's Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Opuscula, Tom. 1. p. 351; and in Suicer, voc. ZúμBodov; also Athanasii Opera, Tom. I. p. 247, Epist. ad Jovian. Colon. 1686.

Καὶ ταύτης σύμψηφοι τυγχάνουσι

...

πᾶσαι αἱ πανταχοῦ κατὰ τόπον Εκκλήσιαι . πάρεξ ὀλίγων τὰ ̓Αρείου φροvovvTwv.-Epist. ad Jovian. Toni. I. p. 246. See Palmer, On the Church, Pt. IV. ch. IX. § 1.