Article is to the persuasion or engagement of obedience, so they have their degrees of necessity.

Now all that Christ, when he preached, taught us to believe, and all that the Apostles in their Sermons propound, all aim at this, that we should acknowledge Christ for our Lawgiver and our Saviour; so that nothing can be necessary by a prime necessity to be believed explicitly, but such things which are therefore parts of the great Article, because they either encourage our services, or oblige them, such as declare Christ's greatness in himself, or his goodness to us; so that although we must neither deny nor doubt of any thing, which we know our great Master hath taught us. Yet salvation is in special and by name annexed to the belief of those Articles only, which have in them the indearments of our services, or the support of our confidence, or the satisfaction of our hopes, such as are; Jesus Christ the Son of the living God; the cruci fixion and resurrection of Jesus; forgiveness of sins by his blood; resurrection of the dead; and life eternal; because these propositions qualify Christ for our Saviour and our Lawgiver, the one to engage our services, the other to endear them; for so much is necessary as will make us to be his servants, and his disciples; and what can be required more? This only. Salvation is promised to the explicit belief of those Articles, and therefore those only are necessary, and those are sufficient; but thus, to us in the formality of Christians, which is a formality superadded to a former capacity,

we, before we are Christians, are reasonable creatures, and capable of a blessed eternity, and there is a creed which is the Gentiles' creed, which is so supposed in the Christian creed, as it is supposed in a Christian to be a man, and that is, "he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

If any man will urge farther, that whatsoever is deducible from these Articles by necessary consequence, is necessary to be believed explicitly; I answer, it is true, if he sees the deduction and coherence of the parts; but it is not certain that every man shall be able to deduce whatsoever is either immediately, or certainly deducible from these premises; and then since salvation is promised to the explicit belief of these, I see not how any man can justify the making way to heaven narrower than Jesus Christ hath made it, it being already so narrow, that there are few that find it.

the

In the pursuance of this great truth, the Apostles or the holy men, their contemporaries and disciples, composed a creed to be a rule of faith to all Christians, as appears in Irenæus, Tertullian,* St Cyprian,† St Austin,‡ Ruffinus, and divers others ;|| which creed, unless it

*

Apol. contr. Gent. c. 47. de veland. Virg. c.

In Exposit. Symbol.

§ In Symbol. apud Cyprian.

1

Serm. 5. de Tempore, cap. 2.

|| All the orthodox fathers maintain that the creed is of Apostolic origin. Sext. Senensis, lib. 2. bibl. 5. vide Genebr 1. 3. de

Trin.

had contained all the entire object of faith, and the foundation of religion, it cannot be imagined to what purpose it should serve; and that it was so esteemed by the whole Church of God in all ages, appears in this, that since faith is a necessary predisposition to baptism in all persons capable of the use of reason, all Catechumens in the Latin Church coming to baptism, were interrogated concerning their faith, and gave satisfaction in the recitation of this creed. And in the East they professed exactly the same faith, something differing in words, but of the same matter, reason, design, and consequence; and so they did at Jerusalem, so at Aquileia. This was that correct and blameless faith, proclaimed by the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God, apart from all novelty and innovation ; ὄρθη και αμώμητος πίστις, ἥνπερ κηρύττει ἡ ἁγία τοῦ Θεοῦ καθολική και ἀποστολικὴ ἑκκλησία κατ' ουδένα τρόπον καινισμὸν δεξαμévŋ. These articles were the instructions left by the holy Apostles and their fellow labourers to the holy Churches of God; τὰ τῶν ἁγίων αποστόλων και του μετ' εκείνων διατριψάντων, ἐν ταῖς ἁγίαις Θεοῦ ἐκκλησί αις διδάγματα.* Now since the Apostles and apostolical men and Churches, in these their symbols, did recite particular Articles to a considerable number, and were so minute in their recitation, as to descend to circumstances, it is more than probable that they omitted nothing of necessity; and that these Articles

*L. 5. Cod. de S. Trinit. et. fid. Cath. cum. recta.

are not general principles, in the bosom of which many more Articles, equally necessary to be believed, explicitly and more particular are enfolded; but that it is as minute an explication of those fundamental principles I before reckoned, as is necessary to salvation.

And therefore Tertullian calls the creed, the rule of faith, by whose guidance, whatever appears ambiguous or obscure in Scripture may be investigated and explained. Regulum fidei, quâ salvâ et formâ ejus manente in suo ordine, possit in Scriptura tractari et inquiri, si quid videtur vel ambiguitate pendere vel obscuritate obumbrari. The seal of the heart and the oath of our warfare. Cordis signaculum et nostræ militiæ Sacramentum; St Ambrose calls it, (lib. 3. de Velandis Virgin.) The comprehension and perfection of our faith. Comprehensio fidei nostræ atque perfectio; by St Austin, (Serm. 115.) The confession, declaration, and rule of faith. Confessio, expositio, regula fidei; generally by the ancients. The profession of this creed was the exposition of that saying of St Peter, συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς ἐπερώτημα εις Θεόν, The answer of a good conscience towards God. For of the recitation and profession of this creed in baptism, it is that Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Body, says, The soul is not consecrated by the water, but by the truth professed. Anima non lotione, sed responsione sancitur. And of this was the prayer of Hillary, (lib. 12. de Trinit.) Regard this expression of my conscience, that I may always continue in the professions I have

made by baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the sign of my regeneration. Conserva hanc conscientiæ meæ vocem, ut quod in regenerationis meæ symbolo baptizatus in Patre, Filio, Spir. S. professus sum semper obtineam.-And according to the rule and reason of this discourse, (that it may appear that the creed hath in it all Articles primo et per se, primely and universally,) the creed is just such an explication of that faith, which the Apostles preached, viz. the creed which St Paul recites, as contains in it all those things which entitle Christ to us in the capacities of our Lawgiver and our Saviour, such as enable him to the great work of redemption, according to the predictions concerning him, and such as engage and encourage our services. For, taking out the Article of Christ's descent into Hell, (which was not in the old creed, as appears in some of the copies I before referred to, in Tertullian, Ruffinus and Irenæus; and indeed was omitted in all the confessions of the Eastern Churches, in the Church of Rome, and in the Nicene creed, which by adoption came to be the creed of the Catholic Church,) all other Articles are such, as directly constitute the parts and work of our redemption, such as clearly derive the honour to Christ, and enable him with the capacities of our Saviour and Lord. The rest engage our services by proposition of such Articles, which are rather promises than propositions; and the whole creed, take it in any of the old forms, is but an analysis of that