ter, as it was wanting, in his time, in that of his own Church of Aquileia, fo he does not mention it to have occurr'd in the Roman, or in the Oriental. When the more General Confeffion was begun in the Nicene, and finish'd in the Conftantinopolitan Councils, it appears not to have been the Defign of the Fathers in thofe Councils that the Creed, as augmented and fetled by them, should be always us'd in the Form of Baptifm, provided it was embrac'd and acknowledg'd by all Churches, and imply'd, at least, in their particular Forms. Wherefore the Roman, and other Weftern Prelates, who made fo eminent a Part of those Venerable Affemblies, tho' they most heartily entertain'd the Confeffion there eftablifh'd, and renounced all that did not embrace it, yet kept to their Old Form in Baptifm, as we we learn from the exprefs Words of Ruffinus in his Preface: From this Account it not only appears on the one hand, that the Apoftles Creed is juftly defended in its Name and Authority, but likewife on the other hand, that it is guarded against the late Pretenfions of the Socinians, and their Abettors, who, first advancing it extravagantly above all other Forms, are then wont to take refuge in it, as not condemning their Heretical Innovations. For if it was compil'd out of the Eastern Form, we have feen the Reason why it omitted fome Enlargements of that Form; if not, it was yet compil'd by thofe who embraced the faid Eaftern Form in its full Perfection, and thought it a larger Explication of their own. Were there no exprefs Terms in the Apoftles Creed, which which directly and formally preclude the abovefaid Herefies, (the contrary to which has been evinc'd, as by Bishop Pearfon, fo fince him by another most learned Prelate *) yet in as much as this and all other Forms are to be expounded by the Word of God, the Expofition of it must refute all those Opinions which, in any Great and Fundamental Point, are repugnant to the fame Divine Word. Thus the Church of England with the higheft Reafon declares †, That the three Creeds, Nice Creed, Athanafius's Creed, and that which is commonly call'd the Apoftles Creed, ought throughly to be receiv'd and believ'd: The firft, as the refult of two famous Gene * Bishop Bull, Judic, Eccl. Cath, C. VI. S. IV. &c. t Article VIII. ral ral Councils in the Eaft, in opposition to the two leading Herefies of Arius and Macedonius; the fecond tho not of equal Antiquity, nor fo illuftrious in its Óriginal, yet as containing a more diftinct Explication of the Orthodox Belief, and oppos'd not only to the two great Herefies before nam'd, but to thofe likewife of Neftorius and Eutyches †, concerning the Nature and Perfon of our Lord; the third as the found and antient Confeffion of this Western Church; and all three, for that they may be prov'd by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture. * Condemn'd in the third General Council at Ephefus, Anno CCCCXXXI. † Condemn'd in the fourth General Council at Chalcedon, Anno CCCCLI. THE THE INDEX. A A. the Donai, meaning of the Name, 59,60 14, 119 47, 48 in Scripture, cerning the Incarnation of our Saviour, 69 Anointed, Vid., Meffias. Apollinarians, Heretics, Arians, Heretics, 68 ibid. Afcenfion of the Meffias, foretold in Scri- pture, BL 113 -Of our Lord, how accomplish'd, and B. 114 Lood, his own Blood, meaning of the Burial of the Meffias, foretold in Scripture, 92 How accomplish'd in our Lord, ibid. Catho- |