COLLECTIONS OVT OF S. Augustine AND SOME FEW OTHER Latine Writers upon the first part of the Apostles Creed By John Crompe Master of Arts of C. C. C. in Cambridge and Vicar of Thornham in Kent First preached in his Parish Church and now inlarged as here followes for more publike use 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the victorie that overcommeth the world even our Faith August Serm. 38. De Tempore Omnis rationalis Anima aetate congrua discat Fidem Catholicam maximè populi Praedicatores Christiani Ecclesiarum Dei Doctores ut possint veritati contradicentibus resistere Catholicam amantibus pacem prodesse LONDON Printed by John Haviland for William Lee and are to be sold at his shop neere the Miter Taverne in Fleet-street 1638. PErlegi has Collectiones in Symbolum Apostolicum in quibus nihil reperio sanae Doctrinae contrarium quominùs cum utilitate publicâ imprimantur Rmo in Christo Patri ac Domino D. Arch. Cant. Sacellanus Domesticus GUIL BRAY. Dat. Lambethae Maii ult 1638. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE KATHERINE Ladie STANHOPE Dowager The Author wisheth as well the Graces spirituall as the Blessings temporall of this life and the Glories eternall of the life to come GOod Madam I should bee very ingratefull if I should not dedicate the first fruits of any publike labour of mine how great or small soever unto some of your Noble Family from whence I have received not onely the first but all the fruits of my present maintenance in the world And amongst these that doe now survive there is none can challenge so great an interest as your Honour not onely as you are the present Patronesse of my Living but in many other personall and particular respects by which I and mine stand more obliged to your Ladiship than to any others May you therefore please to accept of this poore paper present not as a satisfaction but an acknowledgement onely of my so many great engagements And withall to let it passe under your Honourable Name and countenance unto the world it shall much more increase my debt unto you which seeing I shall have no better meanes and opportunities to pay I doe hereby promise that the failings and deficiencies thereof shall be supplied with prayers for the health and happinesse not of your selfe alone but of all your noble issue also together with the rest of your Family by him that truly honoureth and faithfully serveth your Ladiship in the Lord IOHN CROMPE THE APOSTLES CREED I beleeve in God the Father Almightie Maker of Heaven and Earth c. THis Creed or Summe of Christian Beleefe is commonly called and knowne by the name of the Apostles Creed because indeed as Antiquitie affirmeth it was made and agreed upon by the twelve Apostles themselves to continue and abide as a sure rule of faith to be derived and conveyed to all posteritie thorowout the Christian world in after ages comprehended according to their Apostolicall number in twelve articles and called the Creed or Beleefe because thereby all true Beleevers should be guided and directed how to continue and remaine in the Catholike Unitie and Veritie And withall enabled to convince and reprove all hereticall pravitie and falshood that should afterward spring up and arise in the Church of God either by the subtiltie and malice of the Devill or the weaknesse and wickednesse of man It is derived and delivered unto us by our Ancestours and Forefathers of the Church saith S. Augustine Ser. 181. De temp Praefat. that after the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ unto his Father in Heaven when as by the comming of the Holy Ghost his Disciples were so inspired and inflamed as that they spake to all nations in their owne proper and peculiar tongues and languages and so fitted and prepared were shortly to depart one from another to preach the Gospell and Word of God in all coasts and countries of the world Normam prius sibi futurae praedicationis in commune statuerunt c. They concluded first betweene themselves to set downe such an order and rule of their after-preaching that when they were locally separated and divided one from the other they might not preach a divers and different doctrine one to another to those that they should invite and call to the faith of Christ All therefore being met placed together and filled with the Holy Ghost after conference had everie one delivered his opinion of what hee thought fitting as necessarie to be the subject of their preaching to the Church and people of God And having concluded upon it this they appoint to remaine as a rule of faith and beleefe and even Summa credendorum as the summe and substance of Christian Doctrine to all Beleevers for ever after So far S. Augustine For as they were all of one heart and of one soule Acts 4.32 so they would manifest unto the universall world that they were of one faith and beleefe too Not like the Stellae erraticae the wandring Stars instable Humorists and giddie headed Novellists of our times that having one Catholike and Orthodoxall Religion established in our old England for which wee are ever bound to blesse and praise the holy name of God yet must run into a New England to erect and set up another nay twentie other For Quot homines tot sententiae Looke how many men there are especially that take themselves to be Leaders and Masters among them so many minds they are of as one a Brownist another a Familist a third an Anabaptist and all Separatists from the true Church of God But the holy Apostles though according to their charge given them by their Master our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Matth. 28.9 they went to all nations preaching and teaching the word of God â—uffinus as S. Matthew to Aethiopia S. Mark the Evangelist to Aegypt Lybia and the Africans thereabouts S. Iames to Spaine S. Andrew to Thracia and Scythia Europaea Philip to Scythia Asiatica Bartholomew to Armenia and the hither parts of India Thomas to Media Parthia Persia and as some say to the Brackmannes and the Bactrians Eusebius and the farthest parts of India Iohn the Evangelist to Asia S. Peter to Pontus Galatia Bythinia Cappadocia S. Paul to all the countries interjacent and lying betweene Jerusalem and Illyricum and lastly Ioseph of Arimathea as some but as Nicephorus Simon Zelotes to our British Ile yet they spake and preached still but unum idem one and the same veritie in unitie in how many different and how farre distant regions soever they became Thereby giving the world to understand that there is or at least ought to be but one faith but one religion not onely thoroughout all the countries but also thoroughout all the ages of the world which is therefore called Fides Catholica the Catholike Faith and Religion because of the universalitie of it in all places and at all times For Id vere Catholicum quod
unto the name of God Ostendit quod non antea Deus esse coepit postea Pater sed sine ullo initio Deus semper est Pater est It shewes saith he that God was not first and Father after but that without any beginning even from all eternitie hee was both God and Father and therefore it is said I beleeve in God the Father so that when thou hearest God stiled Father acknowledge confesse and beleeve that he hath a Sonne truly begotten in regard of whom hee is as truly and justly called Father as hee that possesseth any thing is called an Owner or hee that rules over any thing is called a Lord. So that the word Father in this place is a word of a deep and secret mysterie The word onely and truly being the Sonne where God in this sense is the Father And therefore saith S. John In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Ioh. 1.1 God of God light of light verie God of verie God begotten of his Father before all worlds as the Nicene Creed professeth Neither let any be so saucie as to enquire how this Father could or did beget this Sonne as Saint Augustine goes on seeing the verie Angels thereof are ignorant and it is a secret not revealed to the Prophets Whence Esay cries out Generationem â—jus quis enarrabit Who shall dâ—clare his generation Esay 53.8 And therefore let it not enter into our cogitations how this or that can be effected or come to passe but onely beleeve seeing the next word tels us that God is Almightie and therefore if he be Almightie nothing can be unpossible unto him I beleeve in God the Father Almightie And that hee is Almightie that is able to doe whatsoever he will yea and more than hee will too it is manifest as well by his words as by his works By his word first as where he declares as much of himselfe by his faithfull servant Abraham saying I am God all-sufficient or Almightie Genes 17.1 And againe I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come even the Almightie Revel 1.8 And as his Word thus declares him in the first and the last books of the same and indeed all over it if proofe were wanting so his works speake the like of him even from the verie beginning to the ending of the same booke And in particular where they expresse him to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth that is of all things the universall world doth containe as well above as below as well heavenly as earthly as well spirituall as corporall Which is especially in the first of Genesis but seconded and confirmed in many passages and places of Scripture besides as in the Psalmes When I behold saith David thine heavens even the works of thy fingers the Moone the Stars which thou hast ordained and how thou hast made man little lower than thy selfe and crowned him with glorie and honour Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands c. Psal 8. all over the Psalme To which purpose see also Acts 17. about vers 24. and so forward which made Saint Augustine to crie out unto him Omnipotens manus tua semper una eadem creavit in coelo Angelos in terra vermiculos non superior in illis non inferior in istis that is The strength or power of thy hands is omnipotent yea and alwayes one and the same which as it created the glorious Angels in heaven so likewise the little wormes in the earth neither is it any whit greater in those or lesser in these but Deus ita artifex magnus in magnis ut non sit minor in minimis But his power and might appeares as much in the least as in the greatest of his creatures And this may serve first to strengthen us in our faith and trust to God and to make us with the more confidence to have recourse unto him by prayer and supplication because wee know and beleeve that he is Almightie and therefore as the Leaper said Master if thou wilt thou canst make mee cleane Matth. 8.2 So we may be sure that what promises of mercie or goodnesse soever the Lord hath made unto us in his word he will make good in his due time because wee beleeve hee which hath promised is able to doe it as S. Paul speakes Rom. 4.21 Secondly this teaches us also that as God is able to succour us and provide for us because Almightie so likewise to defend us that no enemie ghostly or bodily is able to prevaile against us to our destruction or confusion And therefore that in all our troubles we put our whole trust and confidence in him and his mercie as well for the salvation of our soules as the preservation of our bodies this being the victorie that overcommeth the world even our faith saith S. Iohn 1 Ioh. 5.4 And indeed this is the true and proper sense of this Article I beleeve in God the Father Almightie that is I doe depend and put my trust in him for as S. Augustine whom I undertooke at the first to follow especially in this discourse hath rightly observed the article doth not say Credo Deo or Credo Deum but onely Credo in Deum that is it doth not say I beleeve God or I beleeve that there is a God but onely I beleeve in God For to beleeve God is to beleeve that what God sayes is true which many wicked men and verie reprobates may doe againe to beleeve that there is a God and that hee that made heaven and earth is that God Hoc daemones possunt why even the verie Devils doe the same Credere vero in Dâ—um soli noverunt qui dilligunt illum but to beleeve in God they only know how that love him and are become the children of God by the grace of adoption and by their faith and beleefe in God and therefore because they doe truly and sincerely love God they are emboldened to say I beleeve in God the Father Almightie Maker of Heaven and Earth c. And here I might take occasion to shew you how that in this little Preposition In this small word consisting of two of the smallest letter i n doth consist the whole summe and substance of our Christian Religion Lib. 1. de Relig. cap. 13. pag. 256. Tota pietas totusque Dei cultus atque religio as Zanchius speaketh For who ever did truly and uprightly worship and serve God but out of trust in God who ever did awfully and filially feare God but because he did trust in God who ever did unfainedly and sincerely love God but it proceeded from his trust in God who ever did make conscience of his wayes by avoyding and declining evill but through hope and trust in God who ever was carefull to obey God and walk in the waies of
children Iob 1.6 To which I answer that Christ is called Gods only Son because he alone is his Son by nature and eternall generation and none but he whereas the Angels are his sons but by creation as indeed are all the creatures of the world besides and his elect and chosen children by a more speciall grace of redemption and adoption as it is said As many as received him to them he gave power to be the sons of God even to them that beleeve in his Name Ioh. 1.12 And againe When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman and made under the Law that he might redeeme them which are under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons Gal. 4.4 5 verses And therefore as S. Iohn saith Behold what love the Father hath shewed on us that we should be called the sonnes of God 1 Ioh. 3.1 So that as I say we are sons indeed by grace and adoption but Christ is his only Son by nature and eternall generation as I said before and none but he And therefore unicus dicitur quia nec comparationem recipit cum creaturis nec similitudinem as S. Augustine speaketh He is called Gods only Son because there is neither comparison nor resemblance betwixt his Son-ship and that of the creatures He being a Son of Gods owne substance for ex ore altissimi prodiâ—i I came out of the mouth of the most high primogenitus being the first borne of all creatures as Ecclus. 24.5 and unigenitus the only begotten Sonne of God as before out of Ioh. 1.18 A Son then begotten not created not of grace but nature before not in time as all the creatures are and therefore an onely Son Hereupon himselfe taking his farewell of his Disciples Ioh. 20. as Mr. Hum. Sidenham hath well observed hee shewes them this intervallum and distance betweene his generation and their adoption in saying I goe to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God not to our Father but to mine and yours This separation implies a diversitie and shewes that God is his Father indeed but our Creator and therefore he addes my God and your God mine by a privilege of nature yours of grace mine out of the wombe as it were of everlastingnesse yours out of the jawes of time And therefore seeing Christ only is properly and truly Gods Son and none but he it may serve thus farre to be a comfort and consolation unto us yea and to strengthen our trust in God in that the love of God hath beene so wonderfull and his mercie so unspeakable towards us as that he hath not spared his owne and his onely Son for us as it is said God so loved the world that hee hath given his onely begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Ioh. 3.16 sufficit pro unico The third and last circumstance is that he is called our Lord And in Jesus Christ his only Sonne our Lord So saith S. Paul to us There is but one God which is the Father of whom are all things and wee in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and wee by him 1 Cor. 8.6 And therefore he saith of himselfe to his Disciples Yee call me Master and Lord and yee say well for so I am Ioh. 13.13 For God hath made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom yee have crucified saith S. Peter Act. 2.36 Now this is as S. Augustine saith because Spoliavit antiquo hostem singulari dominio suo asciscit nos He having vanquished and overcome our old enemie the Devill and spoiled him of all principality and power he now rules and reignes over us himselfe by the power of his Word and holy Spirit guiding and directing us in all our wayes and protecting and defending us in all our dangers so that our spirituall enemies shall no more be able to prevaile against us As also in regard of our redemption because he hath purchased us to himselfe being before captives and slaves of the Devill and therefore may justly challenge a lordship and dominion over us And this may serve first to comfort us That hee being our Lord and we abiding under his protection we need not feare what any enemie whether spirituall or temporall whether Devill or wicked men can doe unto us For if God be on our side who can be against us saith Saint Paul Rom. 8.31 And therefore let us not feare them which can kill onely the body but rather feare him which is able to destroy both body and soule in hell as it is said Matth. 10.28 And indeed in the second place his Lordship over us ought to beget a feare in us towards his holy name according to that of the Prophet If I be a Lord where is my feare Malac. 1.6 For howsoever as he is a Saviour hee most truly deserves our love yet as hee is Lord both of heaven and earth and Judge both of quicke and dead he as justly requires our feare Now both these titles as yee see are here ascribed unto him and given him even in this one Article of our Creed for as hee is in this last clause of it stiled and called our Lord so before hee was called Jesus a Saviour here Dominus which is nomen Majestatis a name of feare and Majestie there Jesus which is nomen benignitatis amoris a name of benignitie and love This shewes him to be an eternall being and a giver of being to all his creatures That that hee is the Authour of our well being that had made our selves in a miserable being so that it had beene better for us never to be than to be in such a miserable estate as either we were all by nature or they all shall be that are and shall be without this Jesus this Saviour uterque hic profitetur Dominus Salvator he is here professed to be both both Lord and Saviour ut pro potestate qua omni suae creaturae dominatur jure metuendum ostenderetur pro bonitate vero qua misericorditèr quosdam salvat dignum dilectione demonstraretur as S. Augustine speakes i. e. that in regard of his power whereby he rules over all his creatures it might be shewne that hee ought worthily to be feared and in regard of his goodnesse whereby hee saves some he might be demonstrated to be worthy likewise of all love but as one saith Many are willing and readie to embrace Christ as Jesus to save them who yet like not to have him urged upon them as their Lord to governe and command them sufficit pro hoc atrticulo Which was conceived by the Holy Ghost and borne of the Virgin Mary THese two circumstances of the conception and birth of Christ expresse to the full the manner how he tooke our humane nature upon him and became man for as all mankind is so generated and brought forth into the