LECTURE VI. Q. Repeat the Articles of your Belief, As I intend to bring before you upon another occasion the several grounds of our belief in the existence of a God, I will employ the present time in stating the origin and history of the three Creeds, which are found in the Liturgy of our Church; and which the Eighth Article asserts "ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture." The word Creed, I would observe by the way, signifies a confession of faith, and is so called from the first word of the belief, which in Latin is Credo, or I believe. Now the origin of Creeds, or confessions of faith, was this-When the gospel was first preached, after our Saviour's ascension into heaven, it was required of those who were disposed to join the newly established, church and become Christians, to make some profes sion of their faith; to express their assent, that is, to the main doctrines and truths set forth in the gospel. This was necessary before they could be baptized, and received within the covenant of grace. For the Apostles, as you will remember, were commanded to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." They therefore required some confession, in more or less general terms, to be made by each convert, before they baptized and admitted him into the church. And thus he was taught what he was to believe concerning the three several persons, in whose name baptism was administered to him. And hence came the origin of Creeds, of short aud comprehensive summaries of Christian faith and doctrine. But as regards the Apostles' Creed in particular. Many persons in all ages have supposed that it was actually drawn up by the twelve Apostles themselves, for the use of their converts, and for preserving an uniformity of teaching, when they were scattered abroad in various districts: and some indeed have gone so far as to name the respective articles that were contributed by each particular Apostle. Now there is a very great difficulty in this supposition, for it is proved by satisfactory evidence, that in the Apostles' Creed, as it now stands, there are two or three articles, those which refer to our Saviour's descent into hell, to the communion of saints, and to the life everlasting, which are known not to have been added for nearly four hundred years afterwards. It is plain therefore that the Creed, in its present form, could not have been composed, in the manner as is pretended, by the Apostles. It is doubtless very ancient, and seems to have been peculiar to the Roman Church; and so, because the authorship of it was not known, it might have been presumed to have been derived from the Apostles; or because the Roman Church, from its being founded by the two great Apostles, Peter and Paul, was called, by way of excellency, the Apostolical Church, the Creed that was adopted by it may have been also called the Apostles' Creed. However this is a matter of no consequence. From whatever reason the Creed may have been called the Apostles', it is certain, that though it is very ancient, it was not compiled by them. The probability indeed is, that the Apostles did not confine themselves to any one set form of words. Had they done so, it is likely that the same would have been adopted by all the churches universally. But because there was not any one formulary of faith, authoritatively set forth by the Apostles, each church had liberty to draw up their own creeds, as they did their own liturgies; so long as they kept to the doctrine of the Gospel, and inserted nothing that could not be distinctly proved by Scripture. Remember, therefore, that there is not sufficient evi dence to prove that that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, was compiled by them: it is nearly the most ancient of all the Creeds which have come down to us, and our Church has adopted it as containing a short but most excellent abstract of all those mighty truths and doctrines which it is necessary for a Christian to know and believe, to be fully convinced and heartily persuaded of, before he can hope for salvation through the merits and mediation of a crucified Redeemer. And because it is thus a comprehensive summary of all the articles of the Christian faith, our Church has introduced it into her Baptismal Service, and requires the assent to it of the child or person to be baptized, ere she will receive him into her bosom, and allow him to share in all the blessed rights and privileges with which Christ has endowed her. And now a few words with regard to the Nicene Creed, which is found in the Communion Service. Though the same in substance, the same in doctrine as the Apostles' Creed, it differs from it chiefly in this respect, that it is more explicit and full in asserting the divine nature of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In the Apostles' Creed you will remember that no express declaration is made of His being the Son of God. But in the Nicene Creed it is emphatically asserted that "He is the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father." Now the reason of this full and unequivocal assertion of our Lord's divine nature is this. About three hundred years after His death and resurrection, there arose up certain men in the Church, who denied, in some sort, His Divine Nature, that He was God from everlasting, equal to, and one with the Father. This heresy and setting forth of blasphemous doctrine, so wholly contrary to the teaching of the Apostles, naturally caused much excitement, and gave great offence. And to check the further spread of it, the Bishops of the whole Christian world were summoned to meet together at a city called Nice. There they assembled, and after much deliberation, agreed upon and set forth that rule of faith, which has ever since been called the Nicene Creed, and professed and believed by all the Christian Churches throughout the world. And, for the most part, it was the custom, in all the churches, to read it when the communion was administered; a practice, I need not add, adopted by the Church of England. It differs also from the Apostles' Creed in speaking more fully of the divinity and offices of the Holy Ghost Yet the one is in no wise contrary to the other; both harmonize and agree in doctrine. Of the Athanasian Creed I will speak next Sunday; and for the present I will only further observe that we never can value the three Creeds too highly. They are our best and surest safeguards |