Tomline on Article VIII: Of the Three Creeds

[…]

^i8 Ejrpmti<m of the [part hi.

Symbolum tessera est et signaculum quo inter fideles perfidosque secemitur (b).

I shall treat of the three Creeds in the order in which they are mentioned in this article. Xbe Nice, or Nicene, Creed is so denominated because the greater part of it namely, as far as th words / Holy Ghost,” was drawn up and lreed to at the council of Nice, or Nicaea in By* tfaynia, A.D. 325 ; the rest of this Creed was added 9t the council of Constantinople, a. d. 381, except the words ” and the Son,” which follow the words ” who proceedeth from the Father,” and they were inserted a. d. 447. The addition made at Constantinople was caused by the denial of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost by Macedonius and his followers, and the Creed, thus enlarged, was immediately received by all orthodox Christians. The insertion of the words, ” and the Son,” was made by the Spanish bishops, and they were soon after adopted by the Christians in France. The bishops of Rome for some time refused to admit these words into the Creed ; but at last, in the year 883, when Nicholas the First was pope, they were allowed, and from that time tfiey have stood in the Nicene creed, in all the western churches ; but the Greek Church has never received them. This point of difference was noticed under the fifth article.

That (b) Maximus Taurinensis de Trad. Symb.

jtnr. vm.] Thirty-ime Ankles. 21^

Thftt which is OftUed the Creed of Athaoasiiw was certainly not writtoi by that Father : it is not found in his wcMrks ; nor is it probable that he should himself coiHise a Creed, as he and all the orthodox (fivines of those limes con? 5tantly refer to the Nicene Creed 9& the standard of their faith. Besides, the Athanasian Creed coHr demns the Macedonian, Nestorianand Eutychiaa herees (c) ; but as this Creed is never mentioned m any of those controversies, we conclnde that it did not then exist; indeed it was never heard of till the sixth catury, above a hundred years after the death of Athanesius (d) ; it was Aea . published under the name of that distinguished fother, probably for purpose of gmng wei to it; and at most it is to be eonadned as containmg his doctrines. It cannot now be aeeertained who was its real author, but it is generally bdieved that it was writti in Latin : it had never die sanction of any council and k is doubtful whether it was evei admitted into eastern church.

Great objection 1ms been made to the clauses

[…]

against (c) The Macedonians deoied the personality of As £Loly Ghost; the Nestorians maintained that there were two persons in Christ, the one divine, and the other human; and the Eutychians contended that th^re was only one nature in Christ, namely the divine, f^; Athanasibs died A.D. 37s.

120 Exposition of the [part iiu

against those who do not believe the catholic faith, as here stated ; and it certainly is to be lamented that assertions of so peremptory a nature, unexplained and unqualified, should have been used in any human composition. The principle upon which these clauses are founded is this — that a belief of certain doctrines is essential to salvation; and this principle seons to rest upon the general tenor and express de- clarations of the New Testament. We find our Saviour and his Apostles equally anxious to esta- blish a right faith and a correct conduct. Faith and good works are inculcated as equally neces- saiy : Without faith, it is impossible to please Him (fj."" He that believeth and is bap- tized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned (f)’ that is, condemned. It is indeed impossible for any one to admit the divine authority of the New Testament, and doubt the necessity of faith in general; and surely the faith thus required must include the leading and characteristic doctrines of the Christian religion; and though the Gospel has not expressly enumerated these particular doc- trines, none seem to have a stronger claim to be so considered than those which relate to the three persons, in whose name we are commanded to be baptized, to the incarnation of Christ,

and (t) Heb. c. 11. V. 6, (/) Marl, c. i6’. v. i6.

AM. VIII.] Tkirtjf’tune Articles. iai

and to a future judgment These are the doc- trines of the Athanasian Creed (g); and there- fore it would follow, that a belief in the doctrines of the Athanasian Creed is essential to salvation. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus, was a favourite maxim of the early ecclesiastical writers ; that is, according to their judgment, no man could be saved who did not believe the doctrines of the Catholic church. This principle is main- tamed by Athanasius, Hilary, Lactantius^ and many other of the most eminent fathers ; and thence it appears that this Creed only spoke the language of those times. It was also a cus- tom among the early Christians, after a confes- sion of the orthodox faith, to pass an anathema on all who denied it; and indeed^ in ahnost every antient creed transmitted to us we find

an

(g) ” It does not pretend to explain haw there are three persons, each of whom is God, and yet but one God; but only asserts the thing, that thus it is, and thus it must be, if we believe a Trinity in Unity ; for the Athanasian Creed, as far as it relates to this matter, is only a more particular explication of the Homousion, adopted by the Nicene fathers ; or in what sense the Son is of the same nature with the Father, and one God with him.” Sherlock’s Vindication. — ^The Hypostatic Union, which is not distinctly asserted either in the Apostles, or the Nicene Creed, is explicitly maintained in the Athanasian Creed, with an evident design to preserve the purity of the Catholic Faith, amidst the contentions of prevailing heresies.

[…]

We know that. different persons have deduced dierent 9d even opposile doctrines from the words of Scripture, and consequently there must l many errors among Christians; but since the Gospel no where informs us what degree of error will exclude from etqmal happiness, I am. ready to acknowledge that, in my jumeat, notwithstaading the authority of former times, our church would have acted more wiy and more consistently with its general principles of mildness and toleration, if it had not adopted, the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creeds Though I firmly believe that the doctrines them*” shelves of this Creed are all founded in Scripture, I cannot but conceive it to be both unnecessaiy and presumptuous to say, that ” except every one do keep them whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.”

As different practical duties are required of different persons, according to their circumstances and situations in life, so different degrees and different sorts of faith, if I may so express myself, may be required of different persons, according to th^r understandings, attainments, smd opportunities of improvement; and God

only

ART. VIII.} Thirty-nine Articles. aa^

only knows what allowance is to be made for the influence of education and habit, and for that infinite variety of tempers, dispositions, and capacities, which we observe in mankind ; but ip any case let it be remembered, that these clauses cannot be considered as applicable to any persons, except those who shall have had full means of instruction in the doctrines to which they relate, and who shall have finally rejected them. It is utterly repugnant to the attributes of God, nor can it be reconciled to our ideas of common justice, that a person should be con* . signed to eternal punishment, because he did’ not believe certain articles of faith, which were nev^ proposed to him, or of the truth of which he was not qualified to judge. We may be convinced that the belief of some doctrines, 83 well ad the practice of some virtues, is essential to salvation ; but we are to suppose that the door of repentance is equally open in both cases : 2f man may be sorry for, and correct an error i^ opinion, as well as he may be sorry for, and abandon, any vice ; in the one case he may con- quer a prejudice, and in the other subdue a passion. We are not justified in saying that liny man is so 3unk In error, or so depraved by sin, that he oannot repent and.be saved; but, 9^ we may say, that if any man perseveres in the deliberate commission of known sin he has

i24 ^Exposition of the [pAUt lit.

no rit to expect salvation, so we may say, timt if a man, through obstinacy and prgudice, finom a wilful misapplication or nect of the talents with which he is endowed, finally rejects the fun- damental doctrines of the Gospel, when tfiey ara fidrly and ftdly proposed to him, he likewise has no right to expect salvation : in dther case he mustbe left to the uncovenanted mercy of God. We are commanded to ” search like Scrip- tures (h),” that we may form a right faith, and be able to ve a reason of the hope that is in us (iy We are also to ” contend for the fiuth which was once delivered to the saints (k) :” that is, we are to maintain with zeal and firmness, what afler mature deliberation and impartial enquiiy, we believe to be revealed truth ; but in our exertions to establish the unity of fetith, we are not to violate the bond of peace ; we are not to consider all who differ from us as unworthy of, or excluded from, the favour of God.

Some learned men have contended that the

APOSTLES CREED, was composed by the Apos- tles themselves, but there is no authority for that opinion in Scripture, or in any writer of the first three centuries (I) ; and much less is there any ground for the fanciful notion men- tioned

(h) John, c. 5. V. 39. (i) 1 Pet. c. 3. v. 15. (k) Jude, T. 3. (I) Vide Vossius and Bishop Bull.

ART. VIII.] Thirty-nine Articles. 225

tioned in the begimung of this article, which several persons have maintained, that each of the Apostles contributed a clause to this creed* Indeed, neither this nor any other formal de- claration of the whdt faith of a Christian, is found in any author before Irenaeus, althou^ it is certain that the Catechumens, frcxn the earliest times, made a public profession of their faith previous to their baptism. The numerous creeds which are extant in the writings of the fethers who flourished from the latter part of the second to the end of the third century, per- fectly agree in substance, but there is a diversity of expression in them, and even the same au- thor does not always use precisely the same creed in different parts of his works. This diversity, as has already been observed, shows only that the Apostles did not prescribe any creed ; for if they had, it would of course have been adopted by all ecclesiastical wiiters without any the slightest variation. The primitive fathers often speak of an apostolical creed: but by that name they do not mean a determinate form of words drawn up by the Apostles, but a creed containing the doctrines which they preached; and this is what we are to understand by the creed, commonly called the apostles

CREED.

VOL. ir. Q

f26 Ejpposition of the [part hi.

It is not known by whom, or at what precise time, this creed was written. The earliest au- thor, who mentions it, is Ruffin (I), at the end of the fourth century, and he considers it as an antient composition transmitted from the days of the Apostles. But though we cannot trace it in the form in which it now stands in our liturgy to those times, it is certainly very old ; and we find almost all its articles mentioned separately and incidentally in the earliest fathers, and parti- cularly in Ignatius, who was contemporary with tfie Apostles.

Great respect is due to all these creeds, on account of their antiquity and general reception among Christians ; but as they do not come immediately from Christ or his Apostles, they have no other claim to our assent than as they agree with the New Testament ; and upon this ground our church declares that they ought

WARRANTS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. The principal parts of these creeds have been already proved, and therefore it is unnecessary to enter into that subject in this place.

I shall here subjoin the two earliest confessions

of

(I) It 18 also in Ambrose’s works, who was con- temporary with Ruffin.

[…]

of faith now extant, the one^from Irenaens (tnX a Greek father, and the other from Tertuliian, a Latin father, both of whom lived in the second century, tfiat the reader may see how exactly they agree in substance with the creeds recdved by our Church : and it deserves to be particularly remarked, that in both these creeds the Divinity of Christ is asserted.

An Exposition of the Catholic Faith, taken from IrensBUs adv. Haer. lib. 1. cap. 2.

” The church, which was planted all over the world unto the ends of the earth, received, both from the Apostles and their’ disciples, that faith which teaches us to believe in one God, the Father Almighty, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all tilings that are therein ; and in one Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was incarnate for our salvation ; and in the Holy Ghost, who foretold by the prophets what God had ordained, and the coming of his dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord ; his being bom of the Virgin Mary ; his passion and re- surrection

(m) Irenaeas is supposed to have been a Greek by birth, though he was Bishop of Lyons in Gaul. His work against heresies was written in Greek, but we have now only k Latih Tfanrfatioh of it, atid some firagtnents of the Original Greek.

Q 2

228 ’ Exposition of the [part hi.

surrection from the dead, and his ascension into Jieaven in the flesh ; and his coming again from heaven, in the glory of the Father, to take cog- nizance of all things that are past, and to raise the whole race of mankind from the dead ; that to Christ Jesus, who is our Lord and our God, our Saviour and our King, according to the will of the invisible Father, every knee may bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue may confess to him, and that he may administer true judgment unto all ; that the workers of wick- edness, both the angels that sinned and became apostates, and impious, unjust, unrighteous, and blasphemous men, may be sent away by him into everlasting fire ; but that all just and righteous men, and such as observe and keep hfe laws, and persevere in loving him, some fix)m the beginning, and some from the time of their repentance, may receive from his hands life and perfection, and be surrounded with such honour and excellency as will not fade away/*

The Rule of Faith, from Tertullian de Praescript. adv. Haer. cap. 13.

” The ruleof fiaith is that which teaches us to believe that there is no other God but one, and no other besides him, who made the worid, and

produced

ART. VIII.] Thirty-nine Articles. 229

produced all things by his Word, which he begot before all things ; that that Word of his, which is called his Son, appeared in the style and title of God in various manners to the patriarchs, and is always mentioned as such in the writings of the prophets 5 and, at last, by the Spirit and power of God, was conceived by the Virgin Mary, w-as incarnate in her womb, and was bom of her a man, in order to be Jesus Christ ; that after that time he preached a new law, attended with a new promise of the kingdom of heaven ; wrought miracles; was nailed to a cross, and rose again the third day ; that he was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father; that he sent the power of the Holy Ghost to supply his absence, and to influence those that believe in him ; that he shall come again with pomp and splendor to receive the saints into the enjoyment of eternal life and the heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, having before for that purpose raised both parties from the dead, and restored to them their flesh or bodies.”

Q S

230 Ejcposition of the [part hi.