Hearts and Understandings are inlightned and opened meaning by his Doctrine and Gospel and that he is exalted above the Angels to which purpose he cites divers Expressions of the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews But tho he there goes over that whole Chapter for the highest Epithets he might give to our Saviour he omits the 8 th 9 th 10 th 11 th and 12 th Verses in which the Title God is bestowed on him and the Creation of the Heavens and Earth is thought at least to be ascribed to him This makes me doubt that those Verses were not originally in that Epistle but have been since added St. Clement endeavours there to ascribe to our Saviour all the most glorious Prerogatives and Pre-eminencies that with Truth he could he himself saith divers magnificent things of him he begins also at the first Verses of that first Chapter to the Hebrews goes thorow the whole Chapter and concludes with the last Verses of it and yet neither calls him God nor imputes to him the Creation of Heaven and Earth nay of that whole Chapter he omits only those five Verses which so speak of him tho they were most of all to Clement's Design and Aim It is true that in those Verses our Saviour is called God in no other Sense than Solomon was so called for the Author uses the very Words that the Psalmist had used of Solomon and the Heavens and Earth there meant are only the New Heavens and Earth foretold by the Prophets even the Gospel-Oeconomy and State yet these Characters of our Saviour are so noble were so highly to Clement's Purpose and Design and it was so impossible for him who went thorow the whole Chapter to overlook them that I cannot believe these Verses were then a part of the Epistle to the Hebrews but as many other Passages both in the Gospels and Epistles have been fraudulently added Or it may be they were at first a marginal Note by some Copier and being taken by succeeding Copiers as Words that had been overseen and not as a Note or Annotation were by them put into the Text it self of the Epistle This Corruption might the more easily happen without being opposed by any because it was a long time near if not full 400 Years before this Epistle was owned as a genuine part of Scripture any where in the West or in many Churches of the Orient That which makes this Conjecture that these Verses have been added to the Epistle to the Hebrews still more probable is that those Antients who owned this Epistle as written by St. Paul said it was originally wrote by him in the Hebrew Tongue and translated into Greek as we now have it by St. Clement Euseb H. E. l. 6. c. 3. Theophylact. Com. in C. 1. Epist ad Hebr. But if so how can we think that Clement should omit what was most for his Design in an Epistle which himself had translated and therefore was perfectly acquainted with it and in a Chapter too out of which he had cited so many Passages that were much less to his purpose The short is St. Clement describes our Saviour as the High Priest of the Priests of the New Testament and when he had the fittest Occasion and the greatest Opportunity from an Epistle of St. Paul which himself had translated into Greek to call our Saviour God and Creator he calls him neither but only our High Priest as St. Paul does throughout that Epistle From whence I say we have these 2 very probable Consectaries that neither did St. Clement think our Saviour to be God or Creator in any Sense of those Words nor were those 5 Verses of that Epistle of St. Paul wherein Christ is so stiled originally in that Epistle but have been since added And hitherto of the Judgment of St. Clement For tho something might be added out of a second Epistle which also bears the Name of St. Clement I shall omit it partly because the Epistle is rejected as counterfeit by the most Learned of the Antients Eusebius St. Jerom and Photius partly because the Meanness of the Stile the Driness and Flatness of the Thoughts and the Inelegance of the Composition most plainly discover that it was none of St. Clement's Eusebius adds that the Antients never alledg or cite the pretended second Epistle of Clement Euseb H. E. l. 3. c. 38. As to what Dr. Bull quotes out of the first Epistle and indeavours to improve by paraphrasing that is by wresting it 't is so trivial as well as so remote that I shall trust the Judgment of any the meanest Reader with it but out of the 2 d counterfeit Epistle he has abused his Reader with a broken Citation which may seem to his purpose when indeed it is not The Words are these being the very first Words of the Epistle We ought Brethren to think of Christ as of God It was knavishly done to omit the next Words which were designed by the Author to explain these We ought says this Pseudo-Clemens to think of Christ as of God as the Judg both of the Dead and Living His Meaning therefore was We ought Brethren to think of Christ as we do of God namely that he also is our Judg. He himself has taught us that God hath committed to him all Judgment John 5.22 And why because he is God No but because he is Man for so himself adds in that very Context God hath given to him to execute Judgment because he is the Son of Man John 5.27 Out of the 9 th Chapter of the same Imposture Dr. Bull alledges Jesus Christ being first a Spirit was made Flesh He should not have left out the following Words so also shall we in the Flesh receive our Reward In both the Expressions he seems to design that the Souls of Men being first created are afterwards infused into Bodies They are not the Harmony of the Body nor derived ex traduce but first really made and existent and then incarnated by the Divine Power But it is Dr. Bull 's constant Method to omit what goes before or after by which his Author's Intention may be cleared or to feign by occasion of some ambiguous preceding Passage an Intention which was never in the Author's Mind and by such pretended Intention to interpret the Places either alledged by him or objected to him In short his Reader can never rely upon his Quotations but then least of all when he falls to explaining or paraphrasing Of the Nazarens Ebionites Mineans LET us now proceed to the Nazarens Mineans Ebionites and Alogians concerning the former of which Dr. Bull grants that if the Nazarens or Mineans were indeed Unitarians if these held that the Lord Christ was a Man only the Question is at an end He yields that the Nazarens being the Christians of Jerusalem and Judea who were converted by the Lord Christ and the Apostles and flourished there under a Succession of 15 Bishops whereof the first was St. James
never produce any thing of the Cabala that but looks this way And see here what Origen who flourished about the Year 270 fays of the Jews I have disputed often says this most Learned Father with the Jewish Rabbins that were of most Esteem but I could never meet with any of them who approve this Doctrine that the WORD is the Son of God Contr. Celsum l. 2. p. 79. Again l. 4. p. 162. he is more express in the case Celsus is ignorant that the Jews do not believe that the Messias or Christ whom they still expect as to come is not God nor the Son of God But Dr. Bull himself tho here to serve the present turn he contends that the Jewish Cabala speaks of the WORD as a Person and the Son of God elsewhere Judic Eccl. p. 170. owns and proves that the Jews do not expect any Messias or Christ promised to them by their Prophets but who shall be a mere Man And he cites Tripho the Jew saying We Jews expect a Christ who is a Man born of Men. But if this was the Opinion of the Jews concerning Christ that he shall be a Man only why does Mr. Bull pretend in this Place that the Cabala or Traditional Doctrine of the Jews which by them is supposed to be of Divine Revelation teaches the contrary namely that the Christ is to be a Divine Person the eternal Son of God and himself also God He will never reconcile these Contradictions to himself But let us now examine of what Authority his Quotations out of some Jewish Books are His first Citation is out of the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom Wisd 18.15,16 Thy Almighty WORD leap'd down from Heaven out of his Royal Throne as a fierce Man of War into a Land destined to Destruction He brought thine unfeigned Commandment as a sharp Sword and standing up filled all things with Death he touched the Heaven tho he stood upon the Earth In sober Sadness this was a terrible WORD his Feet stood on plain Ground and yet his Head touched not the Clouds or the Aether but Heaven it self and with his Death-dealing Fauchion he even depopulated the whole Country in a few Minutes 'T is sufficient however I suppose to sober People if we say hereupon that this same was only a Chimerical not a real Almanzor and that there is no Body but Dr. Bull that will ever be afraid of his Puissance But Dr. Bull objects that however this Passage serves to show that the Author of the Book of Wisdom who was a Jew believed the WORD Right but then he should have observed too that the Book as we now have it must be as much reckoned to the Translator who was a Christian as to the first Writer of it who it may be was a Jew Let us hear Grotius in his Preface to his Annotations on this Book The Book of Wisdom was written by a Jew who lived after the times of Ezra but some Christian or other who was a Greek hapning on it he hath given it us in the Greek Tongue but with divers Additions to it taken from the Christian Religion Of this kind no Man will doubt it is this Description of the WORD which is wholly Christian as Christianity began to be taught about the middle of the second Age the Jews as we have heard from Origen never believed such a kind of WORD namely that is a Person the Son of God or God His next Allegation is from the Paraphrases of Onkelos and Jonathan Jews that translated the Old Testament into Syro-Chaldaick after a Paraphrastical way But I cannot perceive that any of his Citations out of these Paraphrases speak of the WORD in the Platonick Sense namely as a Person or as a God but only in the Jewish and Socinian Sense namely as the Energy and Power of God or God's powerful effectual Mandate As to his last Quotation from a Paraphrase of Jonathan on the Psalms which has some Appearance of being to the purpose for which Mr. Bull alledged it whereas Jonathan seems to read the Lord said to his WORD Sit on my right Hand Jonathan's Words may better be rendred thus the Lord said by his WORD i. e. his Mandate or Decree Sit on my right Hand But Philo speaks home he expresly calls the WORD the Son of God his first-begotten Son to whose Care saith he farther as to the Vicarius and Deputy of God the whole Creation is committed and by whom it was originally made But I shall never believe that a Jew by Religion wrote those things concerning the WORD that we see in Philo's Works Eusebius suspects Photius directly affirms that Philo was a Christian This last adds that by occasion of some Displeasure taken Philo departed from the Christian Religion I believe with Eusebius and Photius that Philo was a Christian but I make no question that Eusebius is mistaken in thinking that this is the Philo who was sent on an Ambassage to the Emperor C. Caligula but a Philo of the second Age toward the expiring of it or of the 2 d Age just expiring For he describes the Therapeutae that is the Christians both in their Discipline their Studies and their manner of interpreting Holy Scripture not as they lived or were in the Apostolick Times but in the Close of the second and Beginning of the third Age. Lastly as to the obscure Rabbi cited by Masius and the unknown Book Tankumam enough has been said to evince that if they speak of the WORD as the Son of God they may be written perhaps in Rabbinical Hebrew and by Jews by Nation but such Jews as were come over to the Christian Religion there being nothing more certain than that the Jews never owned a Son of God in any other Sense but of Adoption Sanctification Exaltation and such like nor do I think that Dr. Bull himself will again insist on Jewish Authorities whether they be these or any other He should make himself ridiculous to all learned Men by persevering in such a notorious Mistake as this that the Jews either now or in any time past believed the WORD as a Person or that God begat a Son who was pre-existent to the World and was together with God the Creator of it 't is for this very Doctrine that the Jews have pretended ever since the Council of Nice and at this day do pretend that Christianity is a Revolt to Heathenism and Paganism There remains now but one thing more in Dr. Bull 's Defence of the Nicene Faith that I intend to consider in this first Part of my Answer to him his Explication of the Trinity or how three Divine Persons and Spirits each of which has all Divine Perfections and is singly and by himself God nay perfect God are for all that but one God On the Explication of the Trinity according to the Fathers and Dr. Bull. THAT three Divine Spirits and Persons each of which has all possible real Perfections and therefore is singly
and was of no farther Use the other is yet more suspicious for could not the Assistants distinguish the Smell of Frankincense no not from any other of the Oriental Spices tho both that and they were every day used in those times in their Funeral Piles But the Tale goes on When the Wicked saw that the Martyr could not be hurt by the Fire they commanded the Executioner to stick his Dagger into Polycarp and so dispatch him which the Hangman presently did but behold two other Miracles and believe me as credible as either of the former For out of the Wound which was in the Martyr's side sprang a Live-dove and then such a Torrent of Blood out of the Body of an old Man upwards of 86 Years as wholly extinguished all that great Fire This Text needs no Comment The Martyrdom of Ignatius affords another sort of Wonders Apparitions and Visions For the Night in which he suffered he appeared to the Christians who had assisted at his Martyrdom to some as one sweating after hard Labour to others standing by the Lord with much Assurance and in unspeakable Glory but however most courteously and lovingly imbracing them all 'T is a Miracle to me that he had not done sweating now that he was arrived at Blessedness or do Souls in their Etherial Vehicles sweat But 't is a greater Miracle that appearing at Christ's right Hand in Heaven he could at the same time imbrace or seem to imbrace those upon Earth As to the Epistles of Ignatius considering by whom they are said to be written and to whom they are more marvellous than the Martyrdoms Ignatius was Bishop at Antioch where he was condemned to Martyrdom by the Emperor Trajan but was sent to Rome guarded by ten Souldiers to suffer there in the Amphitheater In the Amphitheater the Condemned fought with Beasts Lions Leopards and such like till one or the other were killed And for this Reason they chose out of the Prisoners of War and the Condemned the most robust young Men that could make some Sport for the People by the valiant Resistance they made to the Beasts Therefore here are two things very incredible that Ignatius a decrepid old Man for he had been a Bishop above 40 Years should be condemned contrary to Custom and to the Intention of those Sports to fight the Lions And next that in order thereto he should be sent with ten Souldiers lest he should master and got away from four or five to guard him above 1500 Miles To what purpose should they be at so vasi a Charge especially when it had been more proper and more effectual to their purpose to execute him in his own City of Antioch The pretended Epistles however suppose all this they are written to divers Churches as the Old Man passes from Antioch to Rome to fight the Lions and either these Epistles must be granted to be forged or we must admit these extravagant incredible Suppositions But the Epistles themselves more plainly discover the Imposture That to the Romans is chiefly and almost wholly imployed in advising and intreating the Christians of Rome that they should not rescue him from the Execution but permit him to undergo his Sentence The true Ignatius could never write such an absurd thing Was it ever heard of that Christians attempted to rescue their Martyrs on the contrary Martyrdom was reckoned in those days the very highest Glory of a Christian and it was the Indeavour of Christians who assisted at Martyrdoms to incourage the Martyrs by all possible ways to suffer couragiously in short they would as little have rescued a Martyr as they would have committed Sacrilege Besides were the Number and Power of the Christians at Rome in those early times so considerable that they might reasonably attempt so bold an Action as to attack the Amphitheater and the Imperial Guards on behalf of a Prisoner Ignatius perfectly knew the contrary to all this and therefore could not be Author of an Epistle which supposes these Follies The Epistle to the Ephesians is full of weak things He tells them there with equal Silliness and Falshood that the Virginity of Mary her Delivery and the Death of Christ the three great Mysteries saith he of the Gospel were kept concealed from the Devil and done in secret by God He adds that the Star which appeared before our Saviour's Nativity did exceedingly outshine the Sun and all other Lights of Heaven Pionius did not consider that if so it would not have been called a Star but another Sun and that there would have been no Night in Judea till this Star disappeared But see how they have made a dying Man a Bishop and Saint of the first Age of Christianity complement with the Church of the Magnesians I have been judged worthy to see you by Damus your most excellent Bishop by your very worthy Presbyters Bassus and Apollonius and by my Fellow-Servant Socio your Deacon In whom I rejoice because he is subject to his Bishop as to the Grace of God and to the Presbytery as to the Law of Christ Who sees not that this is more like a Master of the Ceremonies than an Apostolical Bishop and a primitive Martyr In the same Epistle he exhorts them not to observe the Sabbaths but it is certain that the Sabbaths were observed together with the Lord's Day till after the Times of Great Constantine it is not likely the true Ignatius would oppose the Custom and Practice of the Universal Church To the Trallians he saith that the Deacons are to be reverenced as Jesus Christ the Bishops as God the Father the Presbytery as the College of Apostles A complicated Blasphemy He tells them afterwards that their particular Bishop is such that his very Look is instructive He that writes thus of Bishops and Church-men must needs be an approved Doctor but I dare almost to give them my corporal Oath he never was a Doctor of the first Age. Writing to the Philippians he forgets not his usual and constant Custom to claw their Bishop Your Bishop saith he is able to do more by his Silence than others by their Speech There are many Bishops still of this mind but our Saviour's Motto was My Sheep hear my Voice To the Smyrneans he says 'T is a good thing to be subject to God and to the Bishop Then he salutes their very worthy Rishop their venerable Presbytery your Deacons my Fellow-Servants the very excellent Daphnus and Eutychus The last Epistle is to Polycarp and tho he writes to a Bishop not to a Church he cannot forbear his odious Daubing He that thinks says this Pseudo-Martyr that he knows more than his Bishop is ruined Hearken to the Bishop that God may hearken to you In the Conclusion of this Epistle as if he were a Prophet he says my Grace be with Attalus and with thee Polycarp A strain which some will think exceeds the Fulness of the Apostolical Character which this Impostor assumes in the Epistle to the
Trallians I salute you saith he to the Trallians in the Fulness of the Apostolical Character In short no one can read these Epistles with Judgment and impartially but he will see what was the Aim of the Forger of them namely under the venerable Authority and Name of Ignatius to magnify the Reverence and Respect belonging to Church-men This is the Beginning Middle and End of all these Epistles except only that to the Romans where to cover his Design and discover his Folly he only advises the Christians not to rescue him from the Imperial Guards These are all the Apostolical Fathers and Writings that our Opposers can muster up during the first 150 Years of Christianity that is to the Times when the Socinians and all Protestants confess that the Faith began to be actually corrupted I have proved that the Monuments they have to produce are unquestionably and incontestably counterfeit and therefore I do not think my self concerned to examine the few and impertinent Passages alledged out of them by Dr. Bull but before I proceed to his other approved Doctors 't is but reasonable that I should have leave to search what Authors and Books of these times of which we are speaking favoured the Unitarians and particularly the Socinians The Question between Dr. Bull and the Unitarians is what genuine Monuments or Remains there are of the Period which Church-Historians have called the Apostolical Succession that is of the Time in which those Doctors of the Church who had conversed with the Apostles and received the pure Faith of the Gospel from their very Mouths flourished And whether those Remains or Monuments do favour the Unitarians or the Trinitarians whether they teach the Doctrine of one God or of three We have seen what Dr. Bull can produce for their pretended Trinity his Apostle Barnabas the Prophet Hermas both of them rejected as false and soolish by the Catholick Church Next the Revelations of Pionius that is the Martyrdoms of Polycarp and Ignatius and their Epistles all which being almost perished and worn out by Time were revealed to Pionius by one from the Dead It is true our Opposers having been so long Masters have made use of their Power to destroy and abolish as much as was possible whatever Monuments of those first Times that too notoriously contradicted the Innovations in the Faith that were made by the Councils of Nice Constantinople and Chalcedon yet as there is no Battel so bloody and cruel but some tho it may be a very few have the good luck to escape from the Massacre so from this Persecution of Books and Writings some illustrious Testimonies and Witnesses to the Truth are come down even to our Times These are the Apostles Creed an unquestioned Epistle of St. Clemens Romanus the Accounts given by unsuspected Historians of the Nazarens or Ebionites the Mineans and the Alogi who all held as the Socinians now do concerning God and the Person of our Saviour the Recognitions of St. Clemens which tho it may be they are not rightly imputed to him yet are a most antient Book and serve to show what was the current Doctrine of those Times they are cited by Origen in divers Places by Eusebius Aikanasins and others Of the Apostles Creed COncerning the Apostles Creed we must resolve two Questions What it teaches and who were the Compilers of it To the first the Creed it self answers I belâ—eve in one God so this Creed was antiently read both in the East and West the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth In these Words the Father is character'd by these Names Properties and Attributions that he is God the one God Almighty and Maker of Heaven and Earth Concerning the Lord Christ it saith And in Jesus Christ his only Son Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only begotten Son our Lord. So the Characters of our Saviour are that he is not the one God but the only begotten Son of the only or one God and that he is our Lord. Our Lord he is as he is our Saviour Teacher and Head of the Church both in Heaven and Earth He is called the only begotten Son of the only or one God to distinguish him from all other Sons of God from Angels who were not begotten but created Sons from Holy Men who are adopted Sons and from Adam who is called the Son of God not because he was generated or begotten but made or formed by God himself immediately Well but it may be this only-begotten Son of God is an only-begotten Son in some higher Sense and namely by eternal Generation from the Substance or Essence of God whereby he is God no less than the Father is God But the Compilers of this Creed knew nothing or however have said nothing of any such Generation so far from that they describe his Generation and his Person by humane Characters and by such only Every thing that they say here either of his Person or Generation is not only humane but inconsistent with Divinity He was conceived say they of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary was crucified dead and buried he arose again from the Dead ascended into Heaven sitteth on the right Hand of God i. e. is next in Dignity to God Our very Opposers confess that every one of these is a Description of a mere humane Person and Generation even they acknowledg that God cannot be conceived be born die ascend and least of all be at God's right Hand or next to God to be God and next to God are wholly inconsistent There is no answering here that the before-mentioned are intended only as the Characters of our Saviour's Humane Nature For a Creed being an Institution or Instruction what we are to believe in the main and sundamental Articles of Religion especially concerning the Persons of the Father Son and Holy Spirit if the first is described as the one or only God and the Son only by Characters that speak him a mere Man and are utterly incompatible with Divinity it remains that the Compilers of the Creed really intended that we should believe the Father is the one God and the Son a mere Man tho not a common Man because conceived not of Man but of the Holy Spirit which is the Power and Energy of God If they had meant or but known that the Son and Spirit are eternal and divine Persons no less than the Father they have done to both of them the greatest possible Wrong because in the same Creed in which they declare that they believe that the Father is the one God Almighty and Maker of Heaven and Earth they believe the Son was conceived born died descended into Hell ascended into Heaven is next to God that is they believe he is a mere Man and concerning the Spirit they believe no higher thing than of the Church we believe in the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Catholick Church It is evident then and incontestable by any fair and sincere Considerer that whoever
made this Creed either they did not know that any other Person but the Father is God or Almighty or Maker of Heaven and Earth or they have negligently or wickedly concealed it The Latter is a Supposition that none will make therefore the other is the Truth of the Matter and it remains only that we enquire who were the Framers of this Creed The Creed that bears the Name of the Apostles Creed was always reckoned both by Fathers and Moderns to be really composed by the Apostles for a Rule of Uniformity among themselves in their Preaching and of Faith to all the Converts till about the middle of this present Age G. J. Vossius published a Book wherein he denies that either the Apostles or the 120 Disciples who are mentioned Acts 1.15 and who assisted and voted with the Apostles in publick Matters were Authors of this Creed He thinketh it was only the Creed of the particular Church of Rome and that the Original of it was this Because it was the Custom to interrogate Persons that were to be baptized whether they believed in God the Father in the Lord Christ the Son of God and in the Holy Ghost in whose Names Baptism is administred therefore in process of Time it became a Form of Confession for Persons who were admitted to Baptism to say I believe in God the Father in Jesus Christ his only-begotten Son and in the Holy Ghost Afterwards some few more Words were added to these as a fuller Description both of the Father and Son and as Heresies grew up new Articles were added to the Creed in opposition to them and to distinguish Catholicks from Hereticks Against all Hereticks and Schismaticks in general this Article was made I believe in the Holy Catholick Church against the Sects of the Gnosticks this Article I believe the Resurrection of the Body This is the Conjecture of Vossius Because it was so evident that this Creed makes only the Father to be God and that it speaks of the Son by only humane Characters and says not the least Word of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit therefore this Book of Vossius was received with a mighty Applause among all the Denomiantions of Trinitarians Papists Lutherans Calvinists and all others They saw themselves delivered by this Book from such an Allegation and Aughority against the Doctrine of the Trinity as was more than equivalent to all their pretended Proofs from the Fathers or from the Holy Scriptures For what are all the Fathers if indeed they were all of their side when opposed by the College of Apostles And what are some incidental and very dubious Expressions of some particular Writer of Holy Scripture against a Creed composed by the Concurrence and Consent of all the Apostles and of their Senate or Council the CXX A Creed in which they not incidentally in which case Men often speak loosly and incorrectly but professedly and designedly declare what is the true Faith to be believed by all Christians concerning the Father Son and Holy Spirit I say for this Reason 't is not to be much wondred that Vossius his Book was so kindly received or that the Trinitarians of whatsoever Perswasion have generally ever since followed the Conjecture of Vossius If now and then a learned Man has dissented from the new Opinion he has always been laugh'd out of Countenance by the Croud of Pretenders to Learning Vossius says 1. St. Luke in his Acts of the Apostles would never have omitted so memorable a Transaction as the compiling a Creed by all the Apostles for a Rule of Doctrine to themselves and their Successors in the Pastoral Office and of Faith to the Converts He has set down many lesser Matters the Election of Matthias into the Apostolate of Judas the Conclusion of the Apostles and Elders assembled in Council concerning the Ritual and Judicial Parts of the Mosaick Law and even divers petty Matters relating only to private Persons and is it credible that he should not say a Word of the Rule of Faith of a Creed made by the joint Consent of all the Apostles and intended for the general and perpetual Use of both Pastors and People But besides that this Creed is never spoke of in the Acts none of the Apostles mention or so much as allude or refer to it in any of their Epistles it is incredible not to say impossible that there should not be so much as a hint given of this Creed in all the Apostolick Writings if indeed it had been composed by the Apostles as their Joint Work for the Use of the whole Catholick Church There are abundance of false Steps made in this reasoning of Vossius 1 It is evident enough that divers most important Matters were ordained by the joint Council and Authority of the Apostles and the CXX which yet St. Luke did not think necessary to be inserted into his History of the Preaching Travels and Persecutions of the Apostles The Institution of the Lord's Day instead of or with the Sabbath or seventh Day appointed by God himself in the 4 th Commandment the Form of Church-Government whether you will say by Bishops or by a Presbytery or in the Independent Way the solemn manner of ordaining the Church-Pastors by Imposition of Hands and Prayer made for them the Love-Feasts the Holy Kiss all these every one will confess are Institutions not of one Apostle but of the College of Apostles and their Council the CXX and yet St. Luke has not told us either when or by whom they were ordained but is as silent of their Institution by the Apostles as of their composing the Creed 2 'T is not hard to guess at the Reason why none of these great Matters or the compiling the Creed are particularly recorded in the Acts of the Apostles namely because they are not bare Memoirs or transient things but such as were to be kept up and perpetuated by Example and Practice Every one sees that the Lord's Day the Form of Church-Polity or Government the Ordination of Church-Pastors the Love-Feasts and the Holy Kiss are Institutions that needed not to be recorded because the constant and universal Practice of them by the Apostles and the whole Church was more effectual to preserve them than any Register or History would be The like is as evident of the Creed it was to be orally taught to every Convert in every Place as the Mark of their Christianity therefore being committed to so many Witnesses and Memories it was considered not as a transient thing of which there was Danger that it might go into Oblivion if not recorded but as laid up safely in the Minds and Memories of all the Faithful Farther 't is an Observation made by all Church-Historians that the Antients of a long time purposely forbore to commit the Creed to Writing partly because they would not expose the Mysteries of Religion to the Contempt Raileries and Opposition of the Heathen partly to oblige their own People to be more
the better Moiety of the Roman Empire were called the Orient The Church of Rome tho she was not as she now calls her self the Mistress yet being the Patriarchal Chair of all the West she was the Example of the Churches of the West Part of the Empire I affirm now that these two Creeds as also that of Aquileia perfectly agree with the Vulgar by which he means the Apostles Creed as we now have it Mr. du Pin's Table which we confess to be exact enough will show us no Difference but what will confirm every intelligent Reader that without peradventure they are all but one Creed made by the same Author or Joint-Authors There is more Difference between the ten Commandments as recited by Moses at Exod. 20. and as repeated again by the same Moses at Deut. 5. than between these Creeds Mr. du Pin will sooner perswade a prudent Reader that the 10 Commandments in Deuteronomy were not the Commandments spoke on Mount Sinai and recorded Exod. 20. than that the 4 Creeds in his Table are not the same or came not from the same Hands The whole Difference of the 4 Creeds consists in these unsignificant Words and Expressions The Oriental Creed said I believe in one God the Father Almighty Invisible and Impassible The Roman I believe in God the Father Almighty and the Aquileian said I believe in one God the Father Almighty the present or Vulgar Creed adds Maker of Heaven and Earth The Roman and Aquileian and Present say And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord the Oriental transposes the word only thus and in our only Lord Jesus Christ his Son The Oriental Roman and Aquileian said who was born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary the Present by way of Explication who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary The Oriental and Roman said was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried the Aquileian crucified under Pontius Pilate buried descended into Hell the Present crucified under Pontius Pilate dead buried descended into Hell But descendit ad inferos he descended to those below or as we render it into Hell is confess'd on all Hands to be an accidental Addition in the Creed of Aquileia and from that Creed was taken into the Present Creed on this Occasion In some Churches it was said was buried in others went to those below which every one sees are equivalent Expressions and intended to signify the same thing but the Church of Aquileia desiring that her Creed should be most full and compleat took in both the Expressions tho at the same time as Ruffinus who was of Aquileia acknowledges she meant no more by both than other Churches by the single word buried And hence it was that the other Churches and Copies of the Creed which said descended into Hell or descended to those below did omit buried and so at this day doth the Athanasian Creed But it was not long before this Variety of expressing the same thing begat Mistakes for by occasion of this Expression descended to those below divers began to imagine a local Descent of Christ into Hell Some of them said to triumph over the Devil others said to release those Damned who believed and repented at the sight of him others had still other as ungrounded Conceits But the Disputes about the Reasons of our Saviour's Descent to those below made the Article taken in general to be believed and therefore it was added at last to the Roman Creed which with this and some other Alterations makes the Vulgar or Present Creed All the Creeds say the third Day he arose again from the Dead The Oriental Roman and Aquileian said he ascended into Heaven sitteth on the right Hand of God the Father the present to the word Father adds the word Almighty They all said from thence he shall come to judg the quick and the dead The Oriental Roman and Aquilean said And in the Holy Ghost the Present more explicitly I believe in the Holy Ghost The Oriental Roman and Aquileian said I believe the Holy Church the Communion of Saints the Present to the word Church adds the word Catholick or Universal All the Creeds said the Forgiveness of Sins In like manner they all said the Resurrection of the Body saving that the Aquileian said of this Body The Present concludes with the Life everlasting the other three mention not the Life everlasting because it is supposed and included in the foregoing Article the Resurrection of the Body I say now let any one read the ten Commandments at Exod. 20. and compare them with the same ten Commandments at Deut. 5. and he will perceive that he may better deny them to be the same Commandments than that these four various Copies are Copies of the same Creed The Variations of the 4 Copies are so inconsiderable the Causes of that Variation so obvious and evident that he that will call them not various Readings of the same Creed but 4 several Creeds proceeding from so many several Compilers in my opinion ought if obstinate in his Error to take Physick But if these are only various Readings of the same Creed without doubt we have gained our Point that the Apostles were the Authors of it For I desire to know how it was morally possible that the East and West which is to say all the Churches of Christendom should in all Kingdoms Provinces and Episcopates happen to have the very same Creed both for Number and Order of Articles and Manner of Expression if they did not receive it from the very same Persons from whom they received the Gospel and the Scriptures namely from the Apostles and other first Missionaries and Preachers of the Heavenly Doctrine It is granted to us that there had been no General Council when this Creed as we have made it appear was the common and only Creed both of the West and Orient therefore when all the Fathers without excepting any that speak of this Creed tell us they have received ex traditione Majorum by Tradition of their Predecessors that this Creed was made by the Apostles they give us such an Account as justifies and proves its own Truth for no other Cause can be thought of how it should become the common and only Creed of Christians 2 Mr. du Pin saith Ruffinus in the 5 th Century is the first Person who asserts that this Creed was composed by the Apostles and that too from popular Tradition indeed a great many other Fathers say the same thing but they all had it from Ruffinus First Mr. du Pin reckons Ruffinus to the 5 th Century only to lessen his Authority and Credit in this Question for it is certain and acknowledged by Dr. Cave and afterwards by Mr. du Pin that Ruffinus flourish'd at Aquileia in the Year 360. at which Time and Place he had a great Friendship and Intimacy with St. Jerom. It is true because he lived to be old he saw the Year of