creed first constantly read in the eastern church about five hundred years after christ r and in the western near six hundred: the creed then read was the Nicene; into whose room afterwards came the apostles; which is repeated.

THE great respect and veneration that hath

Saint

in all ages been paid to the apostles creed, as it is usually called, may, in some measure, apologize for the writing this essay, or any other discourse about it. It would be not only tedious, but also infinite, to transcribe the encomiums that every where abound in the ancient writings of this short synopsis and compendium of the Christian faith. Augustin calls it, "The illumination of the soul; the perfection of believers, by which the bond of infidelity is dissolved, the gate of life is opened, and the glory of faith is shewn; little indeed in words, but great in mysteries; short so as not to oppress the memory, yet comprehensive so as to exceed the understanding Worthily, therefore, is this creed to be attended unto, since whatsoever is prefigured in the patriarchs, declared in the scriptures, or foretold in the prophets, concerning the blessed trinity, and the mystery of our Saviour's incarnation, death and crucifiction, is contained in it." Not much unlike to which

J. Cassian writes, "that the creed comprehends in itself in few words the faith of both testaments, and the sense of the whole scripture." And Petrus Chrysologus, "that it is the entrance into life, the gate of salvation, a peculiar, innocent and pure confession, the covenant of life, the plea of salvation, and the indissoluble sacrament of faith between God and us." "This," saith Maximus Taurinensis, "is the symbol, by the sign of which the faithful are separated from the unbelieving, whose truth makes every believer of It a Christian, sanctifies the living, and reduceth the dead to life;" and many other such like noble and majestic expressions, were made use of by the primi tive writers and panegyrists, to declare their esteem of this creed, which through the divine assistance I shall endeavour a little to explain.

Where, in the first place: Since the nature of things is frequently signified unto us by the names thereof, it may not be altogether unnecessary to take notice of the several titles and appellations, which have been formerly given to this creed; by Ruffinus it is called, "the rule of preaching;" by Salvian, "the gift of salvation;" by Cassian, "the faith of the Catholic sacrament;" by Ambrose, "the seal

of our heart and a military sacrament;" by Irenæus, Tertullian, Novatian and Jerom," the rule of faith and truth."

But that name which hath generally prevailed, and by which it is usually known, is symbolum, or symbol; for which title there are two reasons commonly given: The one is, that it is an allusion to the custom of several persons meeting together to eat of one common supper; whither every one brings something for his share to make up that common meal, which from hence was called symbolum, from the Greek verb SUMBALLEIN, which signifies to throw, or cast together: Even so, say some, the apostles met together, and each one put or threw in his article to compose this symbol; which explication of the word is, I think, first mentioned by Ruffinus, who after he has related the manner of the framing of the creed by the apostles, adds "that for many and just causes they would have it to be called a symbol; for a symbol in Greek signifies a collation, that is, that which many bring into one; for so the apostles in this creed did bring into one, or comprehend in one thing what every person thought." And after him by Cassian and several others, who affirm the same thing, "that the creed was called a symbol, because that

whatsoever is in an immense copiousness, contained in the body of the divine volumes, is by the apostles collated, or reduced into this brief compendium." But what is in general spoken by Ruffinus, Cassian, and others concerning the mutual framing of the creed by the apostles, is more particularly related by one who passes under the name of St. Austin, and probably lived not long after him, who besides what was affirmed by the foregoing authors, shews also the particular articles that were thrown or put into this common confession by each individual apostle, which I shall not here ennumerate, since I shall have occasion to mention them elsewhere in this chap

ter.

But now as to the truth of this sense of the word; in my opinion it is very much to be questioned: to evidence the weakness whereof, I shall not insist on that criticism, that it is not symbolum, but symbola, which hath the forementioned signification; but leaving that nicety to the grammarians, I shall only observe, that this interpretation of the word hath its entire foundation on that opinion, that the apostles were the real authors of the creed, and that they assembled together by their mutual consent to compose and frame it: Now

that the apostles did not so, neither could the creed in any manner or way be formed by them, I shall in the ensuing part of this chapter demonstrate, craving the reader's leave to take it for granted till I come thither, and his permission to dismiss this exposition of the word upon that account, as groundless and unsatisfactory.

The second signification of this word symbolum, is fetched from military affairs, where it is used to denote those marks, signs, watchwords, and the like, whereby the soldiers of an army distinguished and knew each other: in like manner, say some, by this creed the true soldiers of Jesus Christ were differenced from all others, and discerned from them, who were only false and hypocritical pretenders; unto which opinion Maximus Taurinensis seems to incline, who terms "the symbol, the sign by which believers are separated from unbelievers." And Ruffinus more largely writes, "that the Greek word sumbolon, may be rendered in latin by indicium; which word signifies a sign or a mark of distinction, and was applied to the creed, because at that time, as it is related by St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, many of the circumcised Jews feigned themselves to be the apostles of Christ, and B