The only question is, in what manner the four principal Creeds, the Apostles', the Nicene, the Athanasian, and the Creed of Pope Pius, can be framed into one Catholic Creed or Symbol, which shall receive the approbation of the Churches of the Universal Church.

The answer to the question may be thus given:

Let every proposition in the four Creeds which is universally received by every Episcopalian Trinitarian, be retained in its present form without alteration. Let every proposition which is not thus universally received be expressed in the very words of the Holy Scripture; and let the one true Catholic Creed, which might thus be drawn up by the General Council, be declared to be the Creed of the Catholic Church of Christ.

Let us apply this mode of reasoning, then, to each of the four Creeds.

The only clause of the Apostles' Creed which is received with hesitation, is the expression, "He descended into hell." This hesitation arises from the ambiguity of the word, which denotes alike the place of the punishment of the souls departed and the place of their separate existence. This is not the place to enter upon the discussion, in which sense the clause was believed when the Creed was drawn up. If, however, the words of St. Peter, in the book of the Acts, from which the expression was taken, be substituted for the phrase in the Creed. If it was said, "He was crucified, dead, and buried, He was not left in hell, the third day He rose again from the dead,"-the objection would be obviated, and the Catholicity of the clause in question be restored to the very few, who object to its reception in its present form.

The Nicene Creed, to which Constantine assented, so far as the words, "I believe in the Holy Ghost," and which, in its present form, as the Council of Constantinople has left it, with the exception of the words which declare the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as the Father, may be made acceptable to the Churches of the East, as well as to those of the West, by pursuing the same plan. The expression to which the Eastern Churches object is, "Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son."-Certain warrant of Scripture, according to the words of the Church of England', prove the truth of the affirmation; but that truth would be neither compromised, weakened, nor denied, by using the very words of Scripture which declare it, and in which therefore all would agree. If the clause of the Creed were changed into the very words of our Blessed Saviour, in which He assures us of the certainty of the doctrine, no objection could be made to the Creed by the Oriental Christian. The words might be, "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, "who proceedeth from the Father; who is sent forth from the Son; who, "with the Father and the Son together, is worshipped and glorified." Let but this change be proposed, and accepted by an Universal Council, and this portion of the wall of partition between Christians, would be broken down.

The Athanasian Creed is universally received as the summary of the con

9 Acts ii. 31.

1 Art. VIII.

2 John xv. 26.

clusions of the Catholic Church, in the first four general Councils, on the four great Controversies respecting the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit; and it requires, therefore, no consideration in this place. It might be advisable to alter the expressions, "Without doubt, he shall perish everlastingly," and "he cannot be saved," into some declaration of the fearful probability that the rejecter of the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit, will probably be included among those to whom the words of Christ were spoken, "He that believeth not, shall be damned"."

There remains, then, but the fourth Creed, the Creed of Pope Pius-the bond of union to the Churches and Christians which maintain communion with the Church of Rome, or submit themselves to the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. This Creed being in many of its articles utterly unscriptural, is compiled of more unmanageable materials. The Creeds of the Church Universal, or the the Confessions of faith of any particular Church, can be only considered by the authority which ordained them. If the Creed of Pope Pius be regarded as the symbol drawn up by the Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of Rome may declare it to be open to reconsideration*.

If the Bishop of Rome enacted the Creed without the authority of the Council of Trent, no objection can be proposed to its rescission.

If the Bishop of Rome enacted it, by and with the authority of a Council, another Council can give him authority to repeal it, or that same Council may reassume that authority with which it invested his predecessor. In either case,

or in any case, the additions made to the primitive Creeds by the bull of Pope Pius must be rescinded, or remodelled, before there can be union among the Churches of the Universal Church.

Let us apply the test of Scripture to the Articles of the Creed of Pope Pius. They are always appended to the Nicene Creed; which forms, therefore, its introduction or preface, and with which the Universal Church (if the suggestion I have mentioned respecting the clause on the procession of the Holy Ghost be adopted) may be said to be agreed.

1. I most firmly believe that before the whole of the New Testament was written, the Faith of the Church of Rome was spoken of throughout the whole world', and, therefore, that there must have been apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and other observances and constitutions; and whatever of these can be shown to have been appoved by the Apostles, or to be useful in themselves, I am willing also to embrace, to approve, and accept.

2. I receive the Holy Scriptures in the same sense that the Holy Church throughout all the world, and the Mother Church at Jerusalem always did, doth, and hath; to which Church, considered as a Society of Christians, both Pastors and People, it belongs, by prayer, criticism, study, and evidence, to judge of the true sense and interpretation of them; neither will I receive and interpret

3 Mark xvi. 16.

* See this proved at length in the Dedication to the Bishop of Rome, prefixed to Part iii, of this work.

5 Romans i. 8.

them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers; if that unanimous consent, though it never has been found, can ever be discovered.

3. The third article requires to be entirely remodelled.

I do also profess, that there are two Sacraments of the New Law, truly and properly so called, instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, and generally necessary to the salvation of all men; namely, Baptism and the Eucharist; and that there are many other ordinances, such as reading the Scriptures, holy conversation, and silent contemplation, which may be called sacramental, because the blessing of God may be said to attend them. In the same manner, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, and Marriage, may be attended with the blessing of God. The custom of anointing the sick with oil in the name of the Lord, was anciently observed as a means of their miraculous recovery; but its continuance is not commanded by an Apostle, nor by the Primitive Church. I receive and admit the received and approved rites of the Universal Church in the solemn administration of Baptism and the Eucharist, of Confirmation, Marriage, and Orders.

4. I do embrace and receive all and every thing that hath been defined and declared by the Holy Council of Trent, concerning original sin and justification, so far as those definitions and declarations are consistent with the Holy Scriptures, and the unanimous sense of the Fathers, if that can be found.

5. I do also profess, that in the mass there is offered a commemoration of the true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice of Christ for the quick and dead; and that in the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, there is truly, really, and substantially, but still spiritually only, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that there is no change made of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of wine into the blood, which change the Church of Rome calls transubstantiation; but which the Primitive Catholic Church never taught, though it believed with the Church of England, that "the body and blood of Christ were verily and indeed received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper; and that their souls were as certainly refreshed thereby, as their bodies were refreshed by the bread and wine."

6. I confess also, that the Christ commanded the wine to be drank at the same time, and under the same circumstances as He commanded the bread to be eaten ; and therefore, that whether, under one kind only, whole and entire, Christ and a true sacrament is taken and received or not; the Church of Christ has received no command and no authority to depart from the express law and institution of Christ.

7. I do firmly hold, that there is an invisible state, between the death and the resurrection of the body; but that the Holy Scriptures make no mention of purgatory, neither do they assure us that the condition of the souls of men there detained after they have left the body are either blessed by the blessings, cursed by the curses, or aided by the prayers, or relieved in any way by the suffrages of the faithful, who still remain upon earth.

8. I do likewise believe that the Saints reigning together with Christ, are in happiness with Him, and that if any actions of men upon earth could diminish

this happiness, it would be the belief that they, as well as Christ, are to be worshipped and prayed unto. I do believe that they may possibly offer their prayers to God for the happiness of the Universal Church, and therefore for us; and their relics may be safely respected as memorials of their existence, but not venerated as objects of the most inferior degree of worship.

9. I do most firmly believe and assert, that the use of images is expressly forbidden in the fourth commandment, and that no images of Christ, or of the ever Blessed Virgin Mother of Christ, were known for many centuries; and that all such images, and images also of other holy persons, can only receive the honour and veneration due to them, when they are removed from churches, considered as objects of art, and regarded only as efforts of human skill; and as hindrances and interruptions to that only true devotion which endures as seeing Him who is invisible, and whom no image ever has, or ever can represent.

10. I do affirm that the power of indulgences, considered as relaxations of canonical penance, must exist, if the Churches and Ministers of Christ possess the power to demand the canonical penance; but that such penances only ought to be commanded, which shall not require any indulgence or relaxation; and that the preaching of the repentance of the soul, is better than the exacting of any penance in the exercise of a doubtful, questionable, and most abused authority and power.

11. I do acknowledge, with the Council of Constantinople, that the Church of Jerusalem was the mother of all Christian Churches; that the Church of Rome is one only of many holy, Catholic and Apostolical Churches; and that neither Jesus Christ, nor the Apostles of Jesus Christ, nor the Churches of Jesus Christ, for many centuries called the Church of Rome the mother and mistress of all Churches; and I cannot therefore affirm that the Church of Rome is, in any sense whatever, the mother and mistress of all Churches; and I cannot, therefore, and I do not, and I will not promise and swear any true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, who is, only in the same sense as all other Bishops in the Universal Church of Christ, the successor of St. Peter and of his brethren. I acknowledge the equality of the Apostles, and the consequent equality of the Bishops of the Universal Church; and that all Bishops are equally Princes of the Church, and equally the Vicars of Christ; and that Episcopacy, not Papacy, was the institution of our blessed Saviour.

12. I do also, though with much doubt, receive and profess many things which have been delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred Canons and General Councils, especially the first six general Councils, though I receive as truths the decisions of the four first Councils, as they are summed up in the Creed, commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius. I receive all that is consistent with the united testimony of these Councils, and with the testimony of the Holy Scripture; and whatever may be proved to be true or useful in the Council of Trent: and all things contrary to the Scriptures, the first six Councils, and to the * The Roman Schism, illustrated from the Records of the Catholic Church, by the Hon. and Rev. A. P. Perceval, p. 32.

VOL. II. PART IV.

E

useful government of the Churches; and all heresies whatever, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by the Church, I do likewise condemn, reject, and so far as I am permitted by God's word, and by Christian charity, I anathematize.

This true Catholic faith, without which no man can be saved, which at this time I freely profess, and truly embrace, I will be careful (by the help of God) that the same be retained and firmly professed, whole and inviolate, as long as I live; and that, as much as in me lies, it be held, taught, and preached by those under my power, and by such as I shall have charge over in my profession, I, the said N. promise, vow, and swear, so help me God, and these his Holy Gospels.

Some such remodelling of the Creed of Pope Pius, in another meeting or council of the Universal Church of Christ, would preserve the Holy Scriptures, the three Creeds, the veneration due to Antiquity, Tradition, Councils, Fathers, and Churches. It would give to the Church of Rome its due place, and it would restore Episcopacy to the height from which the Papacy had dethroned it. The adoption of such a Creed, which would be truly Catholic, would un-Poperize the Universal Church. By confining the sworn veneration for the Councils to the first four, or to the first six General Councils, which were summoned by Princes, and not by the Bishops of Rome, it would un-Trent the Church of Rome, un-Lateranize the faithful in all Churches; and by upraising a standard, around which all Episcopal Trinitarians might rally, it would restore the hope of peace and union among Christians. The adoption of such a Creed would revive the Primitive Episcopacy; and the words of John Calvin' would be the motto for his followers, till every sectarian who believed in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, would rejoice to become united to the one Holy Universal Church of their crucified but glorified Redeemer.

5. Constantine acknowledged and venerated the Universal Episcopate and the Holy Catholic Church.

As the people of a nation form one society, though their opinions may differ on the expediency or inexpediency of the actions of their government, so also is the Universal Church of Christ represented as one society. As the people of Israel were one family, one nation, one Church, whatever were the sects and divisions among the tribes; so is the Universal Church the Holy Catholic Church of the same God, the revealed God of the spiritual Israel. There can, therefore, be no hope of union among Christians, no Evangelical alliance, upon the plan of many excellent persons, who imagine that the Church of Christ may

7 Quoted in Marshall's Notes on the Episcopal Polity of the Holy Catholic Church, p. 305 and 311. "We shall find that those ancient Bishops sought to frame no other mode of Churchgovernment than that which God hath prescribed in his word. Let them give us such

an hierarchy, in which the bishops may so bear rule, that they refuse not to submit to Christ, and to depend upon Him as their only Head; let them be so united together in a brotherly concord, as that His truth shall be their only bond of union; then, indeed, if there shall be any one who will not reverence them, and pay them the most exact obedience, there is no anathema but I confess them worthy of it."