THE APOSTLES' CREED.

years. And from the Babylonish captivity to the incarnation of Christ, four hundred years.

19 The sum of all which amounts to five thousand and half (a thousand.)

20 And so it appears, that Jesus whom we crucified, is Jesus Christ the Son of God, and true and Almighty God. Amen. In the name of the Holy Trinity, thus end the Acts of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which the Emperor Theodosius the Great found at Jerusalem, in the hall of Pontius Pilate among the

public records; the things were acted in the nineteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, Emperor of the Romans, and in the seventeenth year of the government of Herod the son of Herod king of Galilee, on the eight of the calends of April, which is the twenty-third day of the month of March, in the Ccia Olympiad, when Joseph and Caiaphus were Rulers of the Jews; being a History written in Hebrew by Nicodemus, of what happened after our Saviours's crucifixion.

The APOSTLES' CREED.

(It is affirmed by Ambrose, "that the twelve Apostles, as skilful artificers assembled together, and made a key by their common advice, that is, the Creed; by which the darkness of the devil is disclosed, that the light of Christ may appear. "Others fable that every Apostle inserted an article, by which the creed is divided into twelve articles; and a sermon, fathered upon St. Austin, and quoted by the Lord Chancellor King, fabricates that each particular article was thus inserted by each particular Apostle :— "Peter.-1. I believe in God the Father Almighty;

"John.-2. Maker of heaven and earth;

"James.-3. And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;

"Andrew.-4. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary;

"

Philip.-5. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried;

"Thomas.-6. He descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead;

"Bartholomew.-7. He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

"Matthew.-8. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the

dead;

James, the son of Alpheus.—9. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy
Catholic Church;

"Simeon Zelotes.-10. The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sius ;
"Jude, the brother of James.-11 The resurrection of the body;
"Matthias.-12. Life everlasting. Amen."

Archbishop WAKE says, "With respect to the Apostles being the authors of this Creed, it is not my intention to enter on any particular examination of this matter, which has been so fully handled, not only by the late critics of the Church of Rome, Natalis Alexander,' Du Pin,' &c., but

Amb. Opera, tom. iii. Serm. 38, p. 265. 'King's Hist. Apost. Creed, 8vo, p. 26. "Nat. Alex. § I. vol. i. p. 490, &c. ‘Du Pin, Biblioth. Eccles. vol. i. p. 25, &c.

1

THE APOSTLES' CREED.

yet more especially by Archbishop Usher, Gerard Vossius, suicer, 8 hemius, Tentzelius, and Sam. Basnage, among the Protestante it shall suffice to say, that as it is not likely, that had any such thing as this een done by the Apostles, St. Luke would have passed it by, without taking the least notice of it: So the diversity of Creeds in the ancient Church, and that not only in expression, but in some whole Articles too, sufficiently shews, that the Creed which we call by that name, was not composed by the twelve Apostles, much less in the same form in which it now is."

Mr. Justice BAILEY says, "It is not to be understood that this Creed was framed by the Apostles, or indeed that it existed as a Creed in their time;" and after giving the Creed as it existed in the year 600, and which is here copied from his Common Prayer Book, he says, "how long this form had existed before the year 600 is not exactly known. The additions were probably made in opposition to particular heresies and errors."

14

The most important "addition," since the year of Christ 600, is that which affirms, that Christ descended into hell. This has been proved not only to have been an invention after the Apostles' time, but even after the time of Eusebius. Bishop Pearson says, that the descent into hell was not in the ancient creeds or rules of faith. "It is not to be found in the rules of faith delivered by Irenæus," by Origen," or by Tertullian.12 It is not expressed in those creeds which were made by the councils as larger explications of the Apostles' Creed; not in the Nicene, or Constantinopolitan; not in those of Ephesus, or Chalcedon; not in those confessions made at Sardica, Antioch, Selucia, Sirmium, &c. It is not mentioned in several confessions of faith delivered by particular persons; not in that of Eusebius Cæsariensis, presented to the council of Nice;" not in that of Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, delivered to Pope Julius; not in that of Arius and Euzoius, presented to Constantine; not in that of Acacius, bishop of Cæsarea, delivered into the synod of Selucia;" not in that of Eustathius, Theophilus, and Sylvanus, sent to Liberius;" there is no mention of it in the creed of St. Basil;" in the creed of Epiphanus," Gelasius, Damascus, Macarius, &c. It is not in the creed expounded by St. Cyril, though some have produced that creed to prove it. It is not in the creed expounded by St. Augustine; not in that other," atributed to St Augustine in another place; not in that expounded by Maximus Taurinensis; nor in that so often interpreted by Petrus Chrysologus; nor in that of the church of Antioch, delivered by Cassianus ; neither is it to be seen in the MS. creeds set forth by the learned Archbishop of Armagh. It is affirmed by Ruffinus, that in his time it was neither in the Roman nor the Oriental Creeds."

บ

22

Sam.

1 Diatrib. de Symb. Voss. Dissert. de tribus Symbolis. Suicer. The saur. Eccles.tom. ii. Voce ovμsolov, p. 1086, &c. 'Spanhem, Intro. ad Hist. Eccles. Sii. c. 3. "Ernest. Tentzel. Exercit. select. Exercit. I. Basnage Exercit. Hist. Crit. ad Anu. XLIV. num. 17, 18. 7 Wake's Apost Fathers, 8vo, p. 103. Mr. Justice Bailey's Common Praver, 1813, p. 9. Pearson on the Creed, fol. 1676, p. 225. 10 Lib. 1, c. 2. 11 Lib. de

Princip. in Prooem. 12 Advers. Praxeam. c. ii. Virgin. veland. c. 1.-De Præscript. advers. Hæres. c. 13. 13 Theodoret, l. 1. c. 2. 14 Epiphan. Hæ. es. 72. 15 Socrat. 1. 1. c. 19. 16 Ibid. 1. 2. c. 40. 17 Ibid. 1. 4. c. 12. 18 Tract. de Fide in Ascet. 19 In Anchorat, c. 120. 20 Da Fide e: Symbolo. 21 De Symbolo ad Catechumenos. 22 De Incarnat. lib. 6. 23 Exposit in Symbol. Apost. § 20.

11 And the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting,

THE EPISTLE of PAUL the APOSTLE to the LAODI

CEANS.

[This Epistle has been highly esteemed by several learned men of the church of Rome and others. The Quakers have printed a translation, and plead for it, as the reader may see, by consulting Poole's Annotations on Col vi. 16. Sixtus Senensis mentions two MSS., the one in the Sorbonne Library at Paris, which is a very ancient copy, and the other in the Library of Joannes a Viridario, at Padua, which he transcribed and published, and which is the authority for the following translation. There is a very old translation of this Epistle in the British Museum, among the Harleian MSS., Cod. 1212.]

4 Let not the vain speeches of any trouble you who pervert the truth, that they may draw you aside from the truth of the Gospel which I have preached.

5 And now may God grant, that my converts may attain to a perfect knowledge of the truth of the Gospel, be beneficent, and doing good works which accompany salvation.

6 And now my bonds, which I suffer in Christ, are manifest, in which I rejoice and am glad.

7 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation for ever, which shall be through your prayer, and the supply of the Holy Spirit.

10 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have heard of the coming of the Lord, so think and act in fear, and it shall be to you life eternal; 11 For it is God who worketh you;

in

12 And do all things withoutsin. 13 And what is best, my be loved, rejoice in the Lord Jesus avoid all filthy Christ, and

lucre.

14 Let all your requests be made known to God, anl steady in the doctrine of Christ.

be

15 And whatsoever things are sound and true, and of good report, and chaste, and just, and lovely, these things do.

The EPISTLES of PAUL the APOSTLE to SENECA, with SENECA'S to PAUL.

[Several very learned writers have entertained a favourable opinion of these Epistles. They are undoubtedly of high antiquity. Salmeron cities them to prove that Seneca was one of Caesar's household, referred to by Paul, Philip iv. 22, as saluting the brethren at Philippi. In Jerome's enumeration of illustrious men, he places Seneca, on account of these Epistles, amongst the ecclesiastical and holy writers of the Christian Church. Sixtus Senensis has published them in his Bibliotheque, pp. 89, 90; and it is from thence that the present translation is made. Baronius, Bellarmine, Dr. Cave, Spanheim, and others, contend that they are not genuine.]

6 For such is the sublimity of those doctrines, and their gran-are read; peur, that I suppose the age of a man is scarce sufficient to be instructed and perfected in the knowledge of them. I wish your welfare, my brother. Farewell.