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pleated by that Chrift in whom we believe. As our Religion is Catholick, it holdeth faft that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints, and fince preferved in the Church; and therefore I expound fuch verities, in oppofition to the Hereticks arifing in all Ages, efpecially against the Photinians, who of all the reft have most perverted the Articles of our Creed, and found out followers in these latter Ages, who have erected a new Body of Divinity in oppofition to the Catholick Theology. Against thefe I proceed upon fuch Principles as they themselves allow, that is, upon the Word of God delivered in the Old and New Teftament, alledged according to the true fenfe, and applied by right reafon; not urging the authority of the Church which they reject, but only giving in the Margin the fenfe of the Primitive Fathers, for the fatisfaction of fuch as have any refpect left for Antiquity, and are perfuaded that Chrift had a true Church on the Earth before thefe times.

In that part, which after the demonftration of each Truth, teacheth the neceffity of the believing it, and the peculiar efficacy which it hath upon the Life of a Chriftian, I have not thought fit to expatiate or enlarge my self, but only to mention fuch effects as flownaturally and immediately from the Doctrine, especially fuch as are delivered in the Scriptures; which I have endeavoured to fet forth with all poffible plainness and perfpicuity. And indeed in the whole Work, as I have laid the foundation upon the written Word of God, so I have with much diligence collected fuch places of Scripture as are pertinent to each Doctrine, and with great faithfulness delivered them as they lie in the Writings of thofe holy Pen-men; not referring the Reader to places named in the Margin, (which too often I find in many Books multiplied to little purpose) but producing and interweaving the Sentences of Scripture into the Body of my Expofition, fo that the Reader may understand the ftrength of all my ReaSon without any farther enquiry or confultation. For if those words which I have produced, prove not what I have intended, I defire not any to think there is more in the places named to maintain it.

At the conclufion of every diftinct and feveral Notion, I have re collected briefly and plainly the fum of what hath been delivered in the explication of it, and put it, as it were, into the mouth of every Chriftian, thereby to exprefs more fully his faith, and to declare his profeffion. So that if the Reader pleafe to put thofe Collections together, he may at once fee and perceive what he is in the whole obliged to believe, and what he is by the Church of God understood to profefs, when he maketh this publick, ancient, and orthodox Confeffion of Faith.

I have nothing more to add; but only to pray, that the Lord would give You and Me a good understanding in all things.

THE

THE

CREE D.

Believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth: And in Jesus Chrift his only Son our Lozd: Which was conceived by the Holy Ghöft, born of the Uirgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into Hell, the third day he rose again from the dead: He afcended into heaven, and litteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead: I believe in the Holy Ghoft: The Holy Catholick Church, the Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of lins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting.

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A N

EXPOSITION

OF THE

CREE D.

ARTICLE I.

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

A

S the firft Word Credo, I believe, giveth a denomination to the whole Confeffion of Faith, from thence commonly called the CREED; fo is the fame word to be imagin'd not to ftand only where it is exprefs'd, but to be carried through the whole Body of the Confeffion. For although it be but twice actually rehearsed, yet must we conceive it virtually prefixed to the Head of every Article: that as we fay, I believe in God the Father Almighty, fo we are alfo understood to fay, I believe in Jefus Chrift his only Son, our Lord; as I believe in the Holy Ghost, fo alfo I believe the Catholick Church. Neither is it to be joined with every complete Article only; but where any Article is not a fingle verity, but comprehenfive, there it is to be look'd upon as affixed to every part, or fingle truth contained in that Article: as for example, in the first, I believe in God, I believe that God to be the Father, I believe that Father to be Almighty, I believe that Father Almighty to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth. So that this Credo, I believe, rightly confidered, multiplieth it self to no less than a double number of the Articles, and will be found at least twenty four times contained in the CREED. Wherefore being a word fo pregnant and diffufive, fo neceffary and effential to every part of our Confeffion of Faith, that without it we can neither have CREED nor Confeffion, it will require a more exact confideration, and more ample explication, and that in such a notion as is properly applicable to fo many and fo various Truths.

Now by this previous Expreffion, I believe, thus confidered, every particular Christian is first taught, and then imagined, to make confeffion of his

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Faith and confequently this word, fo used, admits a threefold Confideration. First, as it fuppofeth Belief, or Faith, which is confeffed. Secondly, as it is a Confeffion, or external expreffion of that Faith fo fuppofed. Thirdly, as both the Faith and Confeffion are of neceffary and particular obligation. When therefore we shall have clearly delivered, Firft, what is the true nature and notion of Belief; Secondly, what the Duty of conféffing of our Faith; Thirdly, what obligation lies upon every particular perfon to believe and confefs; then may we be conceived to have fufficiently explicated the firft word of the CREED, then may every one understand what it is he fays, and upon what ground he proceeds, when he profeffeth, I Believe.

For the right understanding of the true nature of Christian Faith, it will be no less than neceffary to begin with the general notion of Belief; which being first truly stated and defined, then by degrees deduced into its several kinds, will at last make the nature of Chriftian Faith intelligible: a defign, if I mistake not, not so ordinary and usual, as useful and neceffary.

Belief in general I define to be an Affent to that which is Credible, as *Clem. Alex. Credible. By the word * Affent is expreffed that Act or Habit of the Underftanding, by which it receiveth, acknowledgeth and embraceth any thing as a Truth; it being the nature of the Soul fo to embrace whatfoever appeareth true unto it, and fo far as it fo appeareth. Now this AfStrom. lib. 2. fent, or Judgment of any thing to be true, being a general Act of the Understanding, and fo applicable to ‡ other Habits thereof as well as to Faith, must be specified by its proper Object, and fo limited and determined to its Sis adia proper Act, which is the other part left to complete the Definition. This Object of Faith is exprefs'd by that which is Credible; for every one who believeth any thing, doth thereby without question affent unto it · ἀληθείας as to that which is credible; and therefore all belief whatsoever is fuch a nguzi kind of Affent. But though all belief be an Affent to that which is Crediel, After. ble, yet every fuch Affent may not be properly Faith; and therefore those words make not the Definition complete. For he which fees an action done, knows it to be done, and therefore affents unto the truth of the performance of it because he fees it: but another person to whom he relates it, may affent unto the performance of the fame action, not because himself fees it, but because the other relates it; in which cafe that which is Credible is the Object of Faith in one, of evident knowledge in the other. To make the definition therefore full, befides the material Object or Thing believed, we have added the formal Object, or that whereby it is properly believed, expressed in the laft term, as Credible, which being taken in, it then Theodoret. de appears, that, First, whofoever believeth any thing, affenteth to fomething Prov. Serm.1. which is to him credible, and that as 'tis credible; and again, whofoever affenteth to any thing which is credible, as 'tis credible, believeth fomething by fo affenting: which is fufficient to fhew the definition complete.

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Luxus culxaládecis. And yet he also afterwards acknowledgeth they had that definition from the Greeks. This is γδ πίσιν καὶ οἱ ὑμέτεροι φιλόσοφοι ὠρίσαντο εἶναι ἐθελάσιον ψυχῆς συγκατάθεσιν. Credere eft cum afenfu cogitare, S. Auguft. Et de Sp. & Lit. cap. Quid eft credere, nifi confentire verum effe quod dicitur? So I take the ufxaláteis used by the Greek Fathers to fignify affenfum or affenfionem, as A. Gellius tranflateth the Stoick, efnaTai, fuâ affentione approbat, l. 19. 1. and before him Cicero, nunc de affenfione atque approbatione, quam Græci culxalάdeo vocant, pauca dicamus, in Lucullo. So aisia and ovfxaláteis are oppofed by the Greeks. As Sextus Empiricus fpeaking of Admetus, feeing Alceftis brought back by Hercules from Hades, 'Exeiros 78 ὅτι τέθνηκε περιεστατο αὐτοῦ ἡ διάνοια ἀπὸ τὸ συγκαταθέσεως, καὶ πρὸς ἀπισίαν ἔκλινε, Pyrrh. Hypot. 1. 13.3. † Φιλαλήθης ἡ ψυχὴ οὐδέποτε καὶ τὸ ψεῦδος ανεχομθμη διατίθεας, άλλος να φανέν ἀληθὲς πάντως καὶ ἐὐθὺς, Simplic. in 3. Arift. de Anima Cl. Alex. 1. 2. Strom. Καν τις τἀληθὲς σκοπῇ, αυξήσει τ' ἄνθρωπον φύσει διαβεβλημβρίου με πρὸς τ' τὸ ψούδες συγκατάθεσιν, ἔχοντα 5 αφορμὰς πρὸς πίςιν τάληθούς. F 15 συγκατάθεσις the Greek word fed for this Afent is applied to other. Acts of the understanding as well as that of belief. So Clemens Alexandrinus, speaking of the definition of Faith, Αλλοι δ ̓ ἀφανοῦς πράγματα ενωτική συγκατάθεσιν ἀπέδωκαν εἶναι τὰ πίσιν, ὥστες ἀμέλες * λπδειξιν αίνος μέρα πράγματα φανεράν συγκατάθεσιν, Strom. 1. 2. And again, Πάτα οὖν δόξα, καὶ κρίσις καὶ ὑπόληψις οἷς ζωμα και σε μια ανεὶ τῷ γένει τα ανθρώπων, συγκατάθεσις· ἔσιν· ἡ δ ̓ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἡ πίςις εἴη ἄρ' ἥ τε απιτία, δπούσασις οὔτα τ πίσεως, δικα] δείκνυσι * συγκατάθεσίν τε καὶ πίσιν,

But

But for the explication of the fame, farther obfervations will be neceffary. For if that which we believe be fomething which is credible, and the notion under which we believe be the credibility of it, then must we first declare what it is to be Credible, and in what Credibility doth confift, before we can understand what is the nature of Belief.

Now that is properly Credible which is not apparent of it felf, nor certainly to be collected, either antecedently by its cause, or reverfly by its effect, and yet, though by none of thefe ways, hath the atteftation of a truth. For those things which are apparent of themselves, are either fo in refpect of our fenfe, as that fnow is white, and fire is hot; or in refpect of our understanding, as that the whole of any thing is greater than any one part of the whole, that every thing imaginable, either is, or is not. The first kind of which being propounded to our fenfe, one to the fight, the other to the touch, appear of themselves immediately true, and therefore are not termed Credible, but evident to fenfe; as the latter kind, propounded to the understanding, are immediately embraced and acknowledged as truths apparent in themfelves, and therefore are not called Credible, but evident to the understanding. And fo thofe things which are * appa- * Apparentia rent, are not faid properly to be believed, but to be known.

non habent fi
dem, fed ag-

cap. 5. Habet

Again, other things, though not immediately apparent in themselves, nitionem. may yet appear most certain and evidently true, "by an immediate and Greg. 4. Dial. neceffary connexion with fomething formerly known. For, being every Fides oculos natural caufe actually applied doth neceffarily produce its own natural ef- fuos, quibus fect, and every natural effect wholly dependeth upon, and abfolutely pre- quodammodo videt verum' fuppofeth its own proper caufe; therefore there must be an immediate effe quod connexion between the cause and its effect. From whence it follows, that, nondum viif the connexion be once clearly perceived, the effect will be known in det, & quibus the cause, and the caufe by the effect. And by these ways, proceeding det, nondum from principles evidently known by confequences certainly concluding, fe videre we come to the knowledge of propofitions in Mathematicks, and conclu- quod credit. fions in other Sciences: which propofitions and conclufions are not faid 222. to be Credible, but Scientifical; and the comprehenfion of them is not Faith, but Science.

;

Befides, fome things there are, which, though not evident of themselves, nor feen by any neceffary connexion to their causes or effects, notwithstanding appear to moft as true by fome external relations to other truths but yet fo, as the appearing truth ftill leaves a poffibility of falfhood with it, and therefore doth but incline to an Affent. In which cafe, whatsoever is thus apprehended, if it depend upon real Arguments, is not yet call'd Credible, but Probable; and an Affent to fuch a truth is not properly Faith, but Opinion.

certiffimè vi

S. Auguft. Ep.

But when any thing propounded to us is neither apparent to our sense, nor evident to our understanding, in and of it felf, neither certainly to be collected from any clear and neceffary connexion with the cause from which it proceedeth, or the effects which it naturally produceth, nor is taken up upon any real Arguments, or reference to other acknowledged truths, and yet notwithstanding appeareth to us true, not by a manifestation, but atteftation of the truth, and fo moveth us to affent not of itself, but by vertue of the Testimony given to it; this is faid † properly to be Credible; and an Affent + Aristot. unto this, upon fuch Credibility, is in the proper notion Faith or Belief. Having thus defined and illuftrated the nature of Faith in general, food τύρων ῥᾴδιοι far as it agreeth to all kinds of belief whatsoever; our method will lead us iss. on to defcend by way of divifion, to the feveral kinds thereof, till at last we come to the proper notion of Faith in the Chriftian's Confeffion, the defign of our prefent difquifition, and being we have placed the formality of

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