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with miraculous power from above, and immediately inspired with the Holy Ghost, and consequently what they delivered was not the word of man, but of God himself; being God is of that universal knowledge and infinite wisdom, that it is impossible he should be deceived, of that indefectible holiness and transcendent rectitude, that it is not imaginable he should intend to deceive any man, and consequently whatsoever he hath delivered for a truth must be necessarily and infallibly true; I readily and steadfastly assent unto them as most certain truths, and am as fully and absolutely, and more concerningly persuaded of them, than of anything I see or know. And because that God who hath revealed them hath done it, not for my benefit only, but for the advantage of others, nor for that alone, but also for the manifestation of his own glory; being for those ends he hath commanded me to profess them, and hath promised an eternal reward upon my profession of them; being every particular person is to expect the justification of himself, and the salvation of his soul, upon the condition of his own faith; as with a certain and full persuasion I assent unto them, so with a fixed and undaunted resolution I will profess them; and with this faith in my heart, and confession in my mouth, in respect of the whole body of the CREED, and every article and particle in it, I sincerely, readily, resolvedly say, I BELIEVE.

I BELIEVE IN GOD.

that we may

under

HAVING delivered the nature of faith, and the act of belief common to all the articles of the CREED, stand what it is to believe; we shall proceed to the explication of the articles themselves, as the most necessary objects of our faith, that we may know what is chiefly to be believed. Where immediately we meet with another word as general as the former, and as universally concerned in every article, which is God: for if to believe be to assent upon the testimony of God, as we have before declared, then wheresoever belief is expressed, or implied, there is also the name of God understood, upon whose testimony we believe. He therefore whose authority is the ground and foundation of the whole, his existence begins the CREED, as the foundation of that authority. For if there can be no divine faith without the attestation of

God, by which alone it becomes divine, and there can be no such attestation, except there were an existence of the testifier, 16 then must it needs be proper to begin the confession of our faith with the agnition of our God. If his name1 were thought fit to be expressed in the front of every action, even by the heathen, because they thought no action prospered but by his approbation; much more ought we to fix it before our confession, because without him to believe as we profess, is no less than a contradiction.

Now these words, I believe in God, will require a double consideration; one, of the phrase or manner of speech; another, of the thing or nature of the truth in that manner expressed. For to believe with an addition of the preposition in, is a phrase or expression ordinarily conceived fit to be given to none but to God himself, as always implying, beside a bare act of faith, an addition of hope, love, and affiance. An observation, as I conceive, prevailing especially in the Latin church, grounded principally upon the authority of St Augustin'.

1 Θεός, θεός· Ἔθος ἦν, ὅτε κατ άρχοιντό τινος, θεὸν λέγειν ἐπευφημι Jouévois. Hesych. Lex.

2 For, Ser. 181, which is upon the CREED, we find these words; 'Non dicit, Credo Deum, vel Credo Deo, quamvis et hæc saluti necessaria sint. Aliud enim est credere illi, aliud credere illum, aliud credere in illum. Credere illi, est credere vera esse quæ loquitur; Credere illum, credere quia ipse est Deus; Credere in illum, diligere illum.' [c. 1, Vol. vi. p. 279 a. Append.] And though that collection of Sermons de tempore under the name of St Augustin be not all his (divers of them being translations of the Greek Homilies), yet this distinction may be collected out of other parts of his works. For, first, he distinguisheth very clearly and seriously between credere Deo, and credere in Deum. 'Nunquam tamen aliquis Apostolorum dicere auderet, Qui credit in me, [non credit in me, sed in eum qui misit me: omnino enim non diceret, Qui credit in me]. Credimus enim Apostolo, sed non credimus in Apostolum.' Tract. 54, in Psalm. [54 in Joh. c. 3: vol. 1. p. 650 d.]

And again: 'Credimus Paulo, sed
non credimus in Paulum; credimus
Petro, sed non credimus in Petrum.'
Tract. 29 in Joh. [c. 6. vol. III. p.
515 D.]
Secondly, he distinguisheth
between credere Deum, and credere in
Deum. 'Multum interest, utrum
quisque credat ipsum esse Christum,
et utrum credat in Christum.-Ille
enim credit in Christum, qui et
sperat in Christum, et diligit Christ-
um.' De verbis Dom. Serm. 61.
[144. c. 2, § 2. vol. v. p. 693 F.]
And, which is the sum of all, he puts
a high value upon the preposition, as
if, by virtue of the addition of in,
the phrase did properly signify so
great an accession unto faith: 'Quid
est credere in Deum? Credendo
amare, credendo diligere, credendo
in eum ire, et ejus membris incor-
porari.' Tract. 29 in Joh. [§ 6. vol.
III. p. 515 D.] Which doctrine of
St Augustin's being taken notice of
by Peter Lombard, hath since been
continued by the school-men; and
Aquinas, Sum. ii. qu. 2, art. 1, § 2. ad
prim. bringing all three under one
act of faith, hath been contradicted
by Durand. in 3 Sent. dis. 23, q. 7,

Whereas among the Greeks, in whose language the New Testament was penned, I perceive no such constant distinction in their deliveries of the CREED; and in the Hebrew language' of the Old, from which the Jewish and Christian Greeks received

§ 6. 'Credere in Deum non est præcise actus fidei, sed fidei et caritatis simul; et sunt etiam plures, et non unus actus tantum.' By whose subtile, but yet clear, determination (as many of his are beyond the rest of the schools), whatsoever is added by the preposition to believe, appears not to be a part of belief, but an act superadded to the act of faith.

For x is sometimes joined with , sometimes with : when with 5, it answers properly to πιστεύειν τῷ Θεῷ, credere Deo, (↳ being nothing else but a significator of the case); when with – it corresponds to πιστεύειν εἰς τὸν Oedv, credere in Deum, (a being a preposition of the same nature with els or in). But yet there is so little, or rather no difference in the Hebrew, that in the first place where it is used, and that of the father of the faithful, even for the act of justifying faith,

Gen. xv. 6, it is translated והאמן ביהוד

by the LXX. καὶ ἐπίστευσεν ̓Αβραμ τῷ Θεῷ, not εἰς Θεόν, and that translation warranted by St Paul, Rom. iv. 3, Gal. iii. 6, and St James ii. 23. In the same manner, 2 Kings xvii. 14.

-is trans אשר לא האמינו ביהוה אלהיהם

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prosper. For although the Vulgar Latin, which our translation followeth, hath made that distinction which the Hebrew maketh not: 'Credite in Domino Deo vestro, et securi eritis; credite prophetis ejus, et cuncta evenient prospera:' yet the Septuagint acknowledgeth no necessity of receding from the original phrase: ἐμπιστεύσατε ἐν κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐμπιστευθήσεσθε· ἐμπιστεύσατε ἐν προφήταις αὐτοῦ, καὶ εὐοδωθήσεσθε. Nor is it only attributed to Moses as joined with God, and so taken as it were into the same phrase, but separately by himself, as Exod. xix. 9, "The Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak

and וגם בך יאמינו לעולם,with thee

believe in thee for ever." And therefore when it was objected to St Basil, that they did believe in Moses, as well as that they were baptized into Moses, and generally: ʼn Tíoris ὁμολογεῖται ἤδη καὶ εἰς ἀνθρώπους γεγενῆσθαι: the Father doth not deny the language, but interprets it: ἡ εἰς αὐτὸν πίστις ἐπὶ τὸν κυριον ȧvapéperal. De Sp. S. c. 14. [§ 31, 33. vol. III. p. 25 D, 27 c.] Neither is this only spoken of Moses and the prophets, that the Israelites believed in them, but of David, not as a prophet, but as a bare relater of his own actions, 1 Sam. xxvii. 12. 717) W`ON JONI kal èmioteú0ŋ 'Axxis év Aavid. LXX. 'Et credidit Achis in David,' Vulg. 'Est ergo fides nostra primo quidem omnium in Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, consequenter vero etiam in omnes sanctos Patriarchas, vel Prophetas, vel Apostolos Christi.' Orig. in Apol. Pamphil. [Inter Opera Origenis, vol. iv. Appendix, p. 38 B.] To conclude, this general phrase of believing in, is originally attributed sometimes to the

that phrase of believing in, it hath no such peculiar and accumulative signification. For it is sometimes attributed to God, the author and original cause; sometimes to the prophets, the immediate revealers of the faith; sometimes it is spoken of miracles, the motives to believe; sometimes of the Law of God, the material object of our faith. Among all which varieties of that phrase of speech, it is sufficiently apparent that in this confession of faith it is most proper to admit it in the last acception, by which it is attributed to the material object 17 of belief. For the CREED being nothing else but a brief comprehension of the most necessary matters of faith, whatsoever is contained in it beside the first word I believe, by which we make confession of our faith, can be nothing else but part of those verities to be believed, and the act of belief in respect of them nothing but an assent unto them as divinely credible and infallible truths. Neither can we conceive that the ancient Greek Fathers of the Church could have any farther meaning in it, who make the whole body of the CREED to be of the same nature, as so many truths to be believed, acknowledged, and confessed; insomuch as sometimes they use not believing in', neither for the Father, Son, nor Holy Ghost; sometimes using it as to them, they continue the same to the following articles of, the Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints', &c. and generally speak of the CREED as of nothing but

supreme author of our Faith, as to God; sometimes to the intervenient messengers, as the prophets; sometimes to the motives of our Faith,

ולא האמינו בנפלאתיו .32 .Psal. lxxviii

LXX. καὶ οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν ἐν τοῖς θαυμασίοις αὐτοῦ, and they believed not in his wondrous works; sometimes to the object of it, or that which is believed,

I במצותיך האמנתי,66 .as Psalm cxix

have believed in thy commandments, as Mark i. 15, πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγ γελίῳ.

1 Πιστεύομεν τοίνυν καὶ ὁμολογοῦ μεν ἕνα μόνον ἀληθινὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν Θεόν,—καὶ ἕνα τὸν μονογενῆ αὐτοῦ υἱόν, —καὶ ἓν μόνον πνεῦμα ἅγιον. S. Basil. de Fide, c. 4. [vol. 11. p. 227 B.]

2 Arius and Euzoius in their confession delivered to Constantine: IIστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν πατέρα παντοκράτορα, καὶ εἰς κύριον Ἰησοῦν,—καὶ εἰς τὸ

ἅγιον πνεῦμα, καὶ εἰς σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν, καὶ εἰς ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, καὶ εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, καὶ εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ. Socrat. Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 26. Sozomen. 1. ii. c. 27. Κατήχησις φωτιζομένων σχε διασθεῖσα εἰς τό, καὶ εἰς ἐν ἅγιον πνεῦμα,—καὶ εἰς μίαν ἁγίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ εἰς σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν, kal els gwǹv alúviov. S. Cyril. Hierosol. Catech. 16 et 18, init. [pp. 243, 285.] Εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον,—εἰς μίαν ἁγίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν EKKλŋolav. S. Epiphan. in Anc. § 120. [vol. II. p. 123 A.] And in a larger confession: Πιστεύομεν εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ εἰς ἓν βάπτισμα μετανοίας, καὶ εἰς ἀνάστ τασιν νεκρῶν,—καὶ εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν. καὶ εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. § 121. [p. 124 c.]

3 Gregorius Nyssenus calls them

mere matter of faith, without any intimation of hope, love, or any such notion included in it'. So that believing in, by virtue of the phrase or manner of speech, whether we look upon the original use of it in the Hebrew, or the derivative in the Greek, or the sense of it in the first Christians in the Latin Church, can be of no farther real importance in the CREED in respect of God, who immediately follows, than to acknowledge and assert his being or existence. Nor ought this to be imagined a slender notion or small part of the first Article of our faith, when it really is the foundation of this and all the rest; that as the CREED is fundamental in respect of other truths, this is the foundation even of the fundamentals: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. And Heb. xi. 6. this I take for a sufficient explication of the phrase, I believe in God, that is, I believe that God is.

2

As for the matter or truth contained in these words so explained, it admits a threefold consideration, first, of the notion of God, what is here understood by that name; secondly, of the existence of God, how we know or believe that he is; thirdly, the unity of God, in that though there be gods many 1 Cor. viii. 5. and lords many, yet in our CREED we mention him as but When, therefore, we shall have clearly delivered what is the true notion of God in whom we believe, how and by

one.

εὐσεβεῖς περὶ Θεοῦ ὑπολήψεις. And Eusebius in his Confession exhibited to the council of Nice, concludes: IIστεύομεν καὶ εἰς ἓν πνεῦμα ἅγιον. Τούτων ἕκαστον εἶναι καὶ ὑπάρχειν πιστεύ OFTES: (Socrat. Hist. Eccl. 1. 8.) signifying that every particular which he had rehearsed he believed to be*. And that was all in the confession intended. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, after a long declaration of the former articles concerning the Father and the Son, draws to a conclusion on the latter article thus: IIpòs δὲ τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ (1. εὐσεβεῖ) ταύτῃ περὶ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ δόξῃ—ἓν πνεῦμα ἅγιον ὁμολογοῦμεν—μίαν καὶ μόνην καθολικὴν τὴν ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν—μετὰ τοῦ τον (vel τοῦτο) τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάσταow oldaper. Theodor. Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 4. So Tertull. de Præscript. adv. Hæret. c. 13. 'Regula est autem fidei

* Dr Burton points out that this is not quite persons had a real and substantial existence.

-illa scilicet qua creditur, Unum om-
nino Deum esse:' and adv. Praxeam,
c. 2, where he makes another re-
hearsal of his Creed, he begins with:
'Unicum quidem Deum credimus.'

1 'Non est amor Dei Articulus,
neque etiam amor proximi;......quia
etiamsi sint præcepta generalia activa,
tamen cum actio contineatur, non
oportet eum constituere articulum:
sed ista sunt fidei dogmata, quæ
sunt columnæ et fundamenta legis
divinæ.' Is. Abravanel de cap. fidei,
c. 11. 'Primus est deorum cultus,
deos credere." Sen. Epist. xcv. § 49.

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