This Article is the sixth of 1552. The last sentence was added in 1562. ARTICLE VIII. OF THE THREE CREEDS. THE three Creeds" are to be "received and believed," because they are proved by the Scrip tures. The "Nicene" Creed was so called from Nice in Asia, in Natolia, celebrated for the General Council assembled there in 325, at which it was This Council met for the purpose of suppressing the doctrines of Arius. drawn up. The "Athanasian" Creed is a Confession of Faith, supposed to have been drawn up by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, to justify himself against the calumnies of his Arian adversaries. It is now generally allowed, among learned men, not to have been composed by him. Waterland ascribes it to Hilary, Bishop of Arles, about 430. n Jude iii. Pearson, on the Ap. Creed, p. 325. Hooker's Ecclesias. Pol. lib. 5. § 42. Wall's History of Infant Baptism, p. 2. c. 9. § 10. Cave's Hist. Lit. vol. I. p. 146. Bulli Judic Eccles. Cath. c. 5. Waterland's Crit. Hist. of the Athanasian Creed. The "Apostles' Creed" is a summary of the Christian Faith; so called, not because they wrote it, but because it contains the doctrines delivered by them. It is of great antiquity; and, as it now stands in the Liturgy, is to be found in the works of St. Ambrose, in the third, and of Ruffinus, in the fourth century. Some expressions, introduced into the "Nicene Creed," may require explanation. "The onlybegotten Son," was an expression here introduced because, previous to the publication of this Creed, there were certain heretics who taught that Christ was not the begotten, but the adoptive Son of God; and because, others held him to be the Son, but in a different sense from that received by the Church. These words, together with the words, "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God," are a declaration against that obsolete heresy. For the same purpose, the words "begotten, not made," were inserted. The expression "Light of Light," is more obscure. The early Fathers adopted a mode of illustrating the doctrine of the Trinity, in the triple essence of fire, light, and heat; the fire they assigned to the Father; the light to the Son; and the heat to the Holy Ghost. To enforce the doctrine they wished to maintain, of his being God begotten of God, they added, by way of illustration, for the confirmation of Faith, that He was also " Light of Light;" and, to prevent the possibility of error, were added the words " very God of very God." As to the expression "one Baptism for the remission of Sins," we read that St. Cyprian, about seventy years before the Council of Nice, held a provincial Council in Africa, at which it was deemed proper, that heretics should be re-baptized, before their reception and re-admission into the bosom of the Church. The words, "one Baptism," were intended to reprobate this doctrine. The remarkable words in this Creed, "of one substance" or consubstantial "with the Father," caused innumerable and endless disputes between those who maintained that Christ was "of the same substance," and those who held that He was "of the like substance" "with the Father." There are formularies or confessions of Faith of much earlier date, with very little variation, almost in the same words, as are to be found in the three Creeds. ° The Creeds of the ancient Christians were very short. Under the earliest date of Apostolical constitutions, they are said to have been baptized • Irenæus adv. Hær. 1. 1. c. 2. c. 13. Tertullian de præscript. adv. Hær. Vetus Sym. Ecclesiæ Hierosolymitana ex Cyrillo. Gregorii Thaumaturgi Neocæsarea in Ponto Episcopi. "into the name of the Father who sent, the Son who came, and the Holy Ghost who witnessed." P In the time of Tertullian, this rule of Faith was more explicit; it was to "believe in One God Almighty, Maker of the world, and in his Son Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, raised from the dead the third day, received in Heaven, who sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come to judge the living and the dead by the resurrection of the flesh." The Creeds, into which we are baptized, are still the same in substance, though different in form. That which is called the Apostles' Creed has had little alteration since it was first compiled. In the short Creeds much was comprehended. The Eunuch's belief in Christ, was virtually a declaration of the Belief of the Trinity. In the name of Christ, is understood the "person who was anointed, and the Unction itself, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This Article is the seventh of those published in 1552. The words in it, "and believed," were not in the former Article. P Const. Apost. lib. 3. c. 17. q Irenæus, lib. 3. c. 20. ARTICLE IX. OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. THIS Article affirms, that "Original Sin" T con sists not "in the following of Adam, as the Pelagians vainly talk, but in the fault or moral irregularity, and in the corruption or sinful depravity of the nature" of every man, born into the world. Many are restrained from these moral irregularities by the fear of disgrace and punishment; which fear is impressed upon them by Rom. v. 12. 14. The Pelagians were a sect of Christians which appeared about the end of the fourth Century. They were so denominated from Pelagius, a native of Great Britain. Fragments of his works were collected by Jerome, and by Garnerius. He maintained, amongst other doctrines, that Adam was by nature mortal, and, whether he had sinned or not, would certainly have died; and that the consequences of Adam's sin, were confined to his own person. t Ps. li. 5. Rom. v. 19. Clemens Rom. c. 17. Irenæus, l. 4. c. 39. Ibid. l. 5. c. 16 iii. 9. u Ps. lviii. 3. Pearson, on the Creed, Art. 3. p. 167. Rom. vii. 18. Gen. viii. 21. Gal. v. 17. Rom. vii. 18.-v. 18. * Eph. ii. 3. Nowel's Cat. p. 53, 54. p. 2. Homily on the Nativity, pt. 1. c. 19. Wall's History of Infant Baptism, Prideaux |