expecting still another Messias to come; wherefore I shew out of the Law and the Prophets which they acknowledge, what was foretold in every particular concerning the Messias, and prove all those to be completed by that Christ in whom we believe. As our religion is Catholic, it holdeth fast that faith which was once delivered to the saints, and since preserved in the Church; and therefore I expound such verities, in opposition to the heretics arising in all ages, especially against the Photinians, who of all the rest 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 opposition to the Catholic theology. Against these I proceed upon such principles as they themselves allow, that is, upon the Word of God delivered in the Old and New Testament, alleged according to the true sense, and applied by right reason; not urging the authority of the Church which they reject, but only giving in the margin the sense of the primitive Fathers, for the satisfaction of such as have any respect left for antiquity, and are persuaded that Christ had a true Church on the earth before these times.

In that part, which, after the demonstration of each truth, teacheth the necessity of the believing it, and the peculiar efficacy which it hath upon the life of a Christian, I have not thought fit to expatiate or enlarge myself, but only to mention such effects as flow naturally and immediately from the doctrine; especially such as are delivered in the Scriptures; which I have endeavoured to set forth with all possible plainness and perspicuity. 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 such places of Scripture as are pertinent to each doctrine, and with great faithfulness delivered them as they lie in the writings of those holy penmen; 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 Exposition, so that the reader may understand the strength of all my reason, without any further inquiry or consultation. For if those words which I have produced, prove not what I have intended, I desire not any to think there is more in the places named to maintain it.

At the conclusion of every distinct and several notion, I have re-collected briefly and plainly the sum of what hath been delivered in the explication of it, and put it, as it were, into the mouth of every Christian, thereby to express more fully his faith, and to declare his profession. So that if the reader please to put those collections together, he may at once see and perceive what he is in the whole obliged to believe, and what he is by the Church of God understood to profess, when he maketh this public, ancient, and orthodox Confession 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 CREED.

I Believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Which was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into Hell, the third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth 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 Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of Sins: The Resurrection of the Body: And the Life everlasting.

AN EXPOSITION

OF

THE CREED.

ARTICLE I.

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

AS

S the first word Credo, I believe, giveth a denomination to the whole Confession of Faith, from thence commonly called the CREED; so is the same word to be imagined not to stand only where it is expressed, but to be carried through the whole body of the Confession. For although it be but twice actually rehearsed, yet must we conceive it virtually prefixed to the head of every Article: that as we say, I believe in God the Father Almighty, so we are also understood to say, I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; as, I believe in the Holy Ghost, so also, I believe the Catholick Church. Neither is it to be joined with every complete Article only; but where any Article is not a single verity, but comprehensive, there it is to be looked upon as affixed to every part, or single 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 considered, multiplieth itself 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 so pregnant and

diffusive, so necessary and essential to every part of our Confession of Faith, that without it we can neither have CREED nor Confession, it will require a more exact consideration, and more ample explication, and that in such a notion as is properly applicable to so many and so various truths.

Now by this previous expression, I believe, thus considered, every particular Christian is first taught, and then imagined, to make confession of his Faith: and consequently this word, so used, admits a threefold consideration: first, as it supposeth Belief, or Faith, which is confessed: secondly, as it is a Confession, or external expression of that Faith so supposed: thirdly, as both the Faith and Confession are of necessary and particular obligation. When therefore we shall have clearly delivered, first, what is the true nature and notion of Belief; secondly, what the duty of confessing of our Faith; thirdly, what obligation lies upon every particular person to believe and confess ; then may we be conceived to have sufficiently explicated the first word of the CREED, then may every one understand what it is he says, and upon what ground he proceeds, when he professeth, I believe.

For the right understanding of the true nature of Christian Faith, it will be no less than necessary 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 Christian Faith intelligible: a design, if I mistake not, not so ordinary and usual, as useful and necessary.

Belief in general I define to be an Assent to that which is credible, as credible. By the word (a) Assent is expressed that act or habit of the understanding, by which it receiveth, acknowledgeth and embraceth any thing as a truth; it being the (b) nature of the Soul so to embrace whatsoever appeareth true unto it, and so far as it so appeareth. Now this Assent, or judgment of any thing to be true, being a general act of the understanding, and so applicable to (c) other habits thereof as well as to Faith, must be specified by its proper object, and so limited and determined to its proper act, which is the other part left to complete the definition.

This object of Faith is first expressed by that which is credible; for every one who believeth any thing, doth thereby without question assent unto it as to that which is credible; and therefore all belief whatsoever is such a kind of Assent. But though all