"with the Father; light of light;" he would find himself in the predicament of the peasant, who, in reply to a similar interrogatory, declared, That he believed what the Church believed; and on being asked what the Church believed, answered, That the Church believed what he believed; and on being pressed still further as to what both the Church and he believed, could only reply, That the Church and himself believed the same thing. Indeed, the sense of the original creed, in some of these articles, was esteemed so ambiguous, that it was disputed whether the Nicene Fathers meant any thing more by oμozatos than likeness to the Father. The word substance is, in this connexion, a purely scholastic or metaphysical term, conveying no proper idea to uneducated persons, and the theological subtilties which are enveloped in the other phrases, are not less transcendently incomprehensible: but, nevertheless, they may possibly be believed in, on the same ground that Jeremy Taylor assigns for the implicit reception which was given to the term hypostasis, when first invented: "It was so long before it "could be understood, that it was believed "therefore, because they would not expose "their superiors, or disturb the peace of the Church, in things which they thought could "not be understood."

66

To clear the Church afresh from its heretical

THE ATHA- Corrections, a third Creed was privately drawn

NASIAN
CREED.

up, composed, according to Hooker, about the year three hundred and forty, but not at that time "so expedient to be publicly used in the Church of God, because,” as he alleges," while "the heat of division `lasteth, truth itself enduring opposition, doth not so quietly and

66

66

currently pass throughout all men's hands, "neither can be of that account which after"wards it hath, when the world once per"ceiveth the virtue thereof, not only in itself, "but also by the conquest which God hath given it over heresy." It may be questioned whether the Apostles ever anticipated that all the world should perceive the virtue of truth; or that it would ever pass quietly and currently through all men's hands. This was not the result to which they directed their exertions as the ministers of Christ; they never entertained the idea that the praise of men, or the authority of men, should be employed to enforce the Divine authority of the gospel, or the claims of God. "Your most religious wisdom knoweth," writes Saint Hilary unto Saint Augustine, "how great the number is in the Church of God, whom the very authority of men's names "doth keep in that opinion which they hold

66

46

already, or draw unto that which they have "not before held." And is the Church of God to be built up of such lifeless stones, such ill

assorted materials, thus artificially cemented by the art of men? Was the religious wisdom of St. Paul acquainted with these expedients for keeping together "God's building," the habitation of the Eternal Spirit? How strikingly do such specimens of ecclesiastical polity evince, that "the foolishness of God is wiser "than men, and the weakness of God is "stronger than men!"

The Athanasian Creed is a monstrous specimen of the perverted zeal, and Anti-Christian animosity, which at that period infected the minds of good men; it shews how mistaken the most learned theologians may be as to the very nature of religion. As if the difficulty lay, not in bringing men to recognise the evidence and authority of the truth, but in enabling them to understand it, we have here an attempt to familiarize and explain, with the utmost logical precision, the doctrine of the Trinity, in order, as it should seem, that no excuse might be left for the most ignorant person to remain an unbeliever. So little did the doctors of the Church understand the nature of those spiritual things which, while hidden from the wise and prudent, are revealed by our Heavenly Father unto babes. The most objectionable peculiarity, however, of this Creed, is the impious presumption of the vindictive Anathema with which it closes, on account of which several distinguish

ed prelates of the English Church have openly protested against its being imposed upon the members of a religious community. The Apostle Paul, under the guidance of inspiration, has pronounced one solemn and emphatic denunciation, and only one: "If any man love "not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be ana"thema maranatha." In this awful sentence, it is remarkable that it is the disposition of the heart, as the seat of the religious principle, that is expressly referred to it is not error of belief, whatsoever degree of culpability may attach to it, but malignity of character, that brands the unhappy being as accursed. The author of this Creed, or of this appendix to the Creed, has dared transfer the burden of criminality from the heart to the understanding, and having ventured to define what Scripture has not defined, and to explain what reason cannot fathom, has had the audacity to declare, that unless a man believe the Catholic faith thus explained in the unauthorized words of human wisdom, "without doubt he shall pe"rish everlastingly. Glory be to the Father, "and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost!!"*

"But now, if I should be questioned concerning the વહે symbol of Athanasius, (for we see the Nicene symbol was "the father of many more, some twelve or thirteen symbols "in the space of a hundred years,) I confess I cannot see "that moderate sentence and gentleness of charity in his

TY-NINE

The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion adopt- THE THIRed by the Church of England, are, with a ARTICLES. few exceptions, deemed by the greater part of the Protestant Nonconformists, unexceptionable as a declaration of religious tenets: similar objections, however, may be brought against their being authoritatively imposed. The pious founders of the Reformed Episcopacy of England, were doubtless actuated by the best intentions, and they achieved all that the state of things at that period allowed of their accomplishing: but still, "the high places were "not removed;"-the grand principle of Po

preface and conclusion as there was in the Nicene Creed.

Nothing there but damnation and perishing everlastingly, "unless the article of the Trinity be believed, as it is there "with curiosity and minute particularities explained. For "the articles themselves, I am most heartily persuaded of the "truth of them, and yet I dare not say that all that are not

so, are irrevocably damned. Besides, if it were considered "concerning Athanasius' Creed, how many people understand "it not, how contrary to natural reason it seems, how little "the Scripture says of those curiosities of explication,-it had "not been amiss if the final judgement had been left to "Jesus Christ, for he is appointed Judge of all the world, " and he shall judge the people righteously, for he knows 66 every truth, the degree of every necessity, and all excuses "that do lessen or take away the nature or malice of a crime; “all which I think, Athanasius, though a very good man, did "not know so well as to warrant such a sentence." BISHOP TAYLOR'S Liberty of Prophesying. Ch. ii.