opposite errors are never heard of. But, if ignorance be an excuse for not understanding orthodoxy, it is to excuse for embracing heresy. If the controversy be looked into, the review of this Creed cannot fail of being of use in it. It cannot bat be observed, that the several heresies contradict each other, and do in their turn support each part of this Scriptural doctrine of "a Trinity in Unity." The Sabellians allow the strict and real divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and though they "confound the Persons" they do not "divide the Substance." The Arians allow the distinction between the sacred Three in the highest degree, for they lock on them as three distinct Beings; and they do thereby "divide the Substance" though they do not confound the Persons." Take the acknowledgment of the former for the undivided Unity, and that of the latter for the real subsistence of a Trinity; and the orthodox Creed will stand the more confirmed, clear of their inconsistencies and palpable opposition to some of the plainest passages in the sacred writings. Archdeacon Dozell.

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• Furthermore, it is necessary &c. From the doctrine of the Trinity, the Creed passes on to that of the "incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ" the right belief of which it declares to be necessary to everlasting salvation." The word "incarnation," though not to be met with in Scripture, expresses precisely what we read there in other words, even that "great mystery of godliness," as the apostle calls it," God manifest in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii. 16. With an account of this wonderful dispensation St. John begins his Gospel, declaring that the Word, or the Son of God, who was in the beginning with God, and was God" by whom all things were made; in whom was life," &c. all which expressions he uses to shew his true and proper divinity, that this same divine Person was made flesh" or was incarnate, and "dwelt among us," &c; that is, he who was truly God, by taking our nature upon him, became truly man; "being made in all things like unto his brethren" sin only excepted. This doctrine, as well as that of the Trinity, having been denied by some hereticks, and greatly depraved and corrupted by others, the author of our Creed judged it necessary to state it in the clearest

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terms possible: keeping close to the sense of Scripture, and guarding it carey against all false glosses, and wrong interpretations. Waldo

The

With respect to this article, namely the doctrine of de incarnation, first, we profess to believe that Jesus Cirs, the Son of God, is God and man; this we assert in opposition to those on the one hand, who thought Christ not fully and completely man, but a messenger from God, under a human appearance; and who supposed his suffering on the cross to be a mere representation or delusion of the senses; while on the other hand we resist the opinion of those who thought him not fully God. It is for this reason we say, pertect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting: God as begotten of the Father before the worlds, man as born of the virgin in the world; and this we are compelled to say, because if he is not God, there is no covenant of redemption, if he is not man, the satisfaction on the cross is a delusion. Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood. equality to the Father has been proved already from St Paul: the inferiority we the more readily acknowledge; because all the force of our adversaries is annulled by the concession. They are very full upon those texts, the Father is greater than I. There is none good but one, that is God. Of that day knoweth no man: no, not the Son, but the Father only." All these texts are literal Scripture, as much as those already quoted; but why ar they produced against us, who never deny them? W confess the inferiority of the Son as well as they do, but not in their way. We grant that the Son while in flesh prayed to the Father, and acknowledged his own inferiority; but the Son in heaven is God, and sits on the right hand of God, partaker of the Divine Majesty. All the texts, that prove the inferiority of the Son as man, the subordination of the Son as the second Person, are good texts: but is there a single text to be produced from Scripture which will prove that He is not eternal, or not of the same substance with the Father? This is the point in question between us, and we challenge them to the proof. Dean Vincent.

* For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so &c.]

This simile or comparison, the only one the author has ventured to introduce into his Creed, may serve to give us some faint idea, however inadequate, of the mysterious union of the two natures in our blessed Saviour; at least thus much we may learn from it, not to deny or disbelieve any article of faith, because we cannot fully comprehend it, nor to reject a doctrine as contradictory or impossible, because we cannot explain it; for, according to that way of reasoning, we may believe nothing. How can we account for, or explain, the manner of our living, or moving, or thinking? Yet shall we therefore deny that we live, move, and think? So in regard to the union of soul and body; how it is effected, I am sure the wisest man living cannot explain; but that they are so united, cannot be denied. That two such different and contrary substances, as spirit and matter, should be so closely and intimately joined together in the human species, never to be separated till death, and to be reunited at the general resurrection, and so to remain to all eternity, is to our short-sighted and imperfect faculties truly amazing and unaccountable; but still there is nothing in it impossible or contradictory; nothing but what the wisest and most learned persons, as well as the ignorant and illiterate, firmly believe. And if we thus assent to an undoubted truth, relating to our own nature, though we cannot fully comprehend, or explain it: surely we ought not to dispute against what the word of God reveals to us concerning the divine nature, and its union with ours, however it may exceed our capacities to understand it. We should rather admire and adore" the wisdom of God in a mystery; even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory," and to accomplish our salvation, 1 Cor. ii. 7. Waldo.

b Who suffered for our salvation, &c.] The remaining part of this Creed relates to other articles founded on these already considered, but less controverted and more immediately practical. These shew the importance of those principles on which they are established; representing the end of this mysterious incarnation, the completion of it, its evidence, its effects, and its infinite consequence to us in our final happiness or misery, according to our improvement by, or neglect, or misapplication of it. This is the great truth with which we are to awaken our hearers, not only "witnessing a good confession" of faith before enemies as well as friends, but shewing its influence on ourselves, and our zeal to promote its beneficial effects on others, by strict example and warm admonition, as well as by sound instruction; warning them to "flee from the wrath to come," and to secure, whilst it may

be secured, a title to everlasting bliss. Archdeacon Dodwell.

This is the Catholick Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.] This has been already explained of a federal title to the merits of Christ, and the glorious privileges of his covenant in the secure promise of unmerited pardon, and even of endless happiness. But the requisite condition of obtaining this title, here specified, directs our view to suitable conduct, as well as to unfeigned assent. He does not "believe faithfully," who is not sincerely influenced by his faith to an holy life. This is an article never to be omitted or forgotten in our discourses on these doctrinal points: if our life is not amended and reformed, a speculative assent to these great truths may aggravate our sin and punishment, but cannot possibly atone for the one, or prevent the other, or even lessen either. It will add self-condemnation to both. Archdeacon Dodwell.

The sense of this concluding verse may be thus given. This is the sum and substance of the true doctrine of the Gospel, of that "faith, which was once delivered unto the saints," and which the catholick or universal Church, still teaches, which if a man believe faithfully and sincerely, and lives suitably to that belief, he shall be saved; but, if he wilfully and obstinately refuses to believe, we condemn him not by any judgment of our own, we wish him no evil, but heartily pray for his conversion and salvation; referring him to the words of our blessed Saviour, which we dare not dispute, or elude; "he that believeth not, shall be damned." Waldo.

From what has been already said it will be found, that damnatory clauses, or anathemas, as they are angrily called, deriving their authority from Scripture, should be considered as awful admonitions, which it hath seemed good to Divine wisdom to announce generally, in order to condemn an indifference of mind in matters of religious principle; to correct a fond admiration of change or novelty; and to intimidate, under the severest penalties of God's displeasure, the vain, or interested, from broaching their wild and pernicious heresies.

If it shall happen from the influence of prevailing heresies, that it may be expedient to draw up a summary of faith, not simply by a plain recital of positive articles, but to add likewise particular and guarded explications of them, in direct refutation of subtle and intricate errors, it may well happen, that terms or positions, thus calcu lated to preclude or obviate these errors, inay, with the errors themselves, be sometimes too remote for vulgar apprehension.

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Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

In such cases it will be evident, that neither articles of faith so conceived, nor the damnatory clauses accompanying them, will, or can be intended to, apply to those, who do not apprehend them.

Still will no just presumption against the utility of such a summary, or of such clauses, attach to them, even as they respect those, who may not at present understand their design. To these persons they will be nevertheless a security for the purity of their faith, whenever that faith shall be endangered by the misrepresentation of error, or artifice; for whenever they shall be tempted to admit false explications, or plausible objections to their faith, they will then at least be as capable of admitting such explications as are true; and, without delusively trusting to the apparent but unreal decision of their own judgment in matters beyond their reach, they will, in the creeds of their church, always have the support of that authority, to which alone the unlearned ought to have recourse. A Creed of this kind may therefore be considered as a preservative against heresy, applicable as occasion shall require; and useful just so far as the danger of error shall occur.

If this Creed therefore be not in daily use, it will be desirable to remind the unlearned of such a preservative, by the repetition of it at stated times, and upon those Occasions especially, when the great and leading objects of our faith are made the subjects of our meditation.

Such an use of it will have another important advantage, as it regards the unlearned: for, as it is previously made a test of the faith of their appointed teacher; so, by the stated repetition of it, it becomes a test of his perseverance in that faith; and they are thereby rendered as secure, as human provisions can render them, of the justness and consistency of his doctrinal instructions.

But to the publick at large a summary of this kind is valuable on many more accounts.

As an explicit and correct profession of the fundamental doctrines of our religion in the churches by which it is adopted, it manifests to the whole Christian world the extent and unity of that faith, which, existing from the commencement of the Gospel, has for the space of twelve or thirteen centuries been secured by the same form of words through the Latin or Western churches of Christendom. Thus again these churches present their institutes of religious faith more explicitly to the candid and mature examination of every liberal and well informed mind, who is thereby enabled to judge of the degree of Scriptural authority, upon which they rest, and of the purity of the Church, within whose pale he has been, or may wish to be, admitted.

The ministry are likewise thereby instructed more fully, in the doctrines which they undertake to teach, and forewarned more in detail of the heresies which they engaged to oppose; and, by these stated repetitions, are reminded of the strict obligations, which they have taken upon themselves; of the fraud, which they impose upon the religious establishment, so long as they receive the emoluments of a station and function, whilst they refuse to dis

charge the duties attached to them; and of the guilt, which they contract before God, when, by neglect or opposition to these doctrines, they discountenance articles of faith, which they voluntarily and publickly have engaged to promote. Bp. Cleaver.

With respect to the publick reading of this Creed, which it is become the practice to omit in some places, it is desirable for the clergy to consider, how offensive this omission must be to the orthodox part of their congregation, who are thereby deprived of an opportunity of professing their faith publickly in the manner which the Church has directed. And they may be asked, whether is it more reasonable to offend those by an irregular omission; or to disgust the heterodox by reading what they are commanded? Waldo.

To the Sceptic, the Arian, and the Socinian, we do not expect to find such a Creed acceptable, because it was designed to restrain the fantastick and pernicious opinions started on their part upon the subjects contained in it.

But every firm and steady believer may still, and indeed ought to, hold high the value of the only Creed delivered to us from antiquity; which states that first and great principle of Christian revelation, the importance and necessity of a just faith.

Upon us, the ministers of the Church, especially, it is incumbent, as occasions offer, to explain and illustrate its design and uses to the more unlearned, as well as to obviate the crude exceptions made against its doctrines or language; to derive its due weight of authority from the venerable antiquity of its origin; and to draw an argument of its merits from the universal approbation, with which it has been received, and from the place which it now holds in the Confession, if not in the Liturgy, of every Church in Europe, papal and reformed; from no one of which could it be removed, without authorizing, on the part of that Church, a presumption, that its doctrines were erroneous.

It has now, indeed, for a long succession of ages borne so great a share in the just interpretation and support of our Christian faith, that it may well afford a doubt, how far without it this faith itself would, in the present degree of purity and correctness, be so well maintained; especially, that important principle of it, which stands foremost in this Creed, and which cannot meet our observation too often. This they have well judged, who, at different times, have proposed to us to part with it, merely to gain in return the applause of a liberal and candid concession, an inducement too usually proffered in contempt, and paid without sincerity.

Concessions, indeed, in matters of less importance, have too generally a very doubtful effect; but who would be responsible for a concession of such high concern? If this Creed be really what, I trust, the preceding considerations prove it to be, an important fence to the faith of that holy Church, which Christ hath purchased with his blood; who would not tremble at the proposal of laying waste a fence, which, in any degree, hath afforded pro

tection to what was obtained for us at so inestimable a price; and of inviting, by a voluntary surrender of our present security, renewed instances of insult, in repeated and incessant attacks, to be made upon the terms and obligations of our Christian covenant? Bp. Cleaver.

When this Creed was written, it was both in the East and West churches accepted as a treasure of inestimable price by as many as had not given up even the very ghost of belief: howbeit not then so expedient to be publickly used as now in the church of God. Hooker.

Upon the whole, it is exceeding useful and even necessary, for every church to have some such form as this, or something equivalent, open and common to all its members; that none may be led astray for want of proper caution, and previous instruction in what so nearly concerns the whole structure and fabrick of the Christian faith. As to this particular form, it has so long prevailed and has so well answered the use intended, that, all things considered, there can be no sufficient reason for changing

any part of it, much less for laying the whole aside. There are several other Creeds very good ones, (though somewhat larger,) which, had they been made choice of for common use, might possibly have done as well. The Creeds I mean, (of which there is a great number) drawn up after the council of Chalcedon, and purposely contrived to obviate all the heresies that ever had infected the Christian church. But those, that dislike this Creed, would much more dislike the other; as being still more particular, and explicit, in regard to the Nestorian, Eutychian, and Monothelite heresies, and equally full and clear for the doctrine of the Trinity.

To conclude; so long as there shall be any men left to oppose the doctrines which this Creed contains, so long will it be expedient and even necessary to continue the use of it, in order to preserve the rest; and, I suppose, when we have none remaining to find fault with the doctrines, there will be none to object against the use of the Creed, or so much as wish to have it laid aside. Dr. Waterland.

Here followeth the Litany,] Till the last review in 1661 the Litany was designed to be a distinct service by itself, and to be used some time after the Morning. Prayer was over. Wheatly. And in the rubrick before the Commination it was ordered, that after Morning Prayer is done, which was then done betimes, and while it was yet morning, not put off as since till towards noon, "the people shall be called together again to the Litany by the tolling of a bell, after the accustomed manner. So that in those days the custom was to go home after Morning Prayer, and to come again to the Litany. Bp. Cosins.

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Here followeth the Litany, or General Supplication, &c.] The word Litany is used by the most ancient Greek writers for "an earnest supplication to the gods, made in time of adverse fortune:" and in the same sense it is used in the Christian church for "a supplication and common intercession to God, when his wrath lies upon us.' Such a kind of supplication was the fifty-first Psalm, which begins with "Have mercy upon me," &c. and may be called David's Litany. Such was that Litany of God's appointing, Joel ii. 17; where, in a general assembly, the priests were to say with tears, "Spare thy people, O Lord," &c. And such was that Litany of our Saviour, Luke xxii. 44, which kneeling he often repeated with strong crying and tears, Heb. v. 7; and St. Paul reckons up "supplications" among the kinds of Christian offices, which he enjoins shall be daily used, 1 Tim. ii. 1; which supplications are generally expounded Litanies for removal of some great evil. As for the form in which they are now made, namely, in short requests by the priest, to which the people all answer, St. Chrysostom saith it is derived from the primitive age. And not only the Western, but the Eastern Church also, have ever since retained this way of praying. This was the form of the Christians' prayers in Tertullian's time, on the days of their stations, Wednesdays and Fridays, by which he tells us they removed drought. Thus in St. Cyprian's time they requested God for deliverance from enemies, for obtaining rain, and for removing or moderating his judgments. And St. Ambrose hath left a form of Litany, which bears his name, agreeing in many things with this of ours. For when miraculous gifts ceased, they began to write down divers of those primitive forms, which were the original of our modern office and about the year 400 these Litanies began to be used in procession, the people walking barefoot, and saying them with great devotion. And Mamertus, bishop of Vienna, did collect a Litany to be so used, by which his country was delivered from dreadful calamities, in the year 460. And soon after, Sidonius, bishop of Arverne, upon the Gothick invasion, made use of the same office; and about the year 500, the Council of Orleans enjoined they should be used at one certain time of the year, in this

publick way of procession: and in the next century, Gregory the Great did, out of all the Litanies extant, compose that famous sevenfold Litany, by which Rome was delivered from a grievous mortality, which hath been a pattern to all Western churches ever since; and ours comes nearer to it, than that in the present Roman missal, wherein later popes had put in the invocation of saints, which our Reformers have justly expunged. But by the way we may note, that the use of Litanies, in procession about the fields, came up but in the time of Theodosius in the East, and in the days of Mamertus of Vienna, and Honoratus of Marseilles, namely, in the year 460, in the West; and it was later councils which did enjoin the use of it in Rogation week; but the forms of earnest supplications were far more ancient and truly primitive As for our own Litany, it is now enjoined on Wednes days and Fridays, the two ancient fasting days of the Christians, in which they had of old more solemn prayers; and on Sundays, when there is the fullest assembly and no church in the world hath so complete a form as the curious and comprehensive method of it will declare. Dean Comber.

-on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,] Epiphanius referreth this order to the apostles. The Jews in their synagogues observed for their special days of assembling together those, that dwelt in villages, Mondays and Thursdays besides the sabbath. The precedent of the Jews directed the Church not to do less than they did. They made choice of Mondays and Thursdays, in regard of some great calamities, that befel their nation upon those days; and that they might not be three days together, without doing some publick service to God. The Church had the like reason of Wednesdays and Fridays, whereon our Saviour was betrayed and crucified; the moral reason of once in three days, with a convenient distance from Sunday, concurring. The observance of these days for publick assemblies was universal, and the practice of the oldest times. Bp. Cosins.

8 --when it shall be commanded by the Ordinary.] Next to the Morning and Evening service in our Prayer-Book stands the Litany, or more earnest supplication for averting God's judgments, and procuring his mercy. This earnestness, it was thought, would be best excited and expressed by the people's interposing frequently to repeat with their own mouths the solemn form of "beseeching" God to "deliver" and to "hear" them: in which however the minister is understood to join equally; as the congregation are in every particular specified by him. Such Litanies have been used in the Church at least 1400 years. And they were appointed first for Wednesdays and Fridays, these being appropriated to penitence and humiliation, and for other fasts: but not long after for Sundays also; there being then the largest congregation, and most solemn worship: and our Litany